Russian man involved in LinkedIn hack arrested in Czech Republic
A Russian man believed to be involved with the 2012 hacking of the now Microsoft Corp.-owned business social network LinkedIn has been arrested in the Czech Republic.
Yevgeniy N., 29, was arrested Oct. 5 for undertaking “criminal hacking attacks on targets in the United States,” according to Reuters, and the arrest was undertaken with the cooperation of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol.
After initial speculation that the man may have been involved in recent political hacking cases, LinkedIn said in a statement that the arrest was related to their hack. “Following the 2012 breach of LinkedIn member information, we have remained actively involved with the FBI’s case to pursue those responsible,” the company noted.
The hack was originally believed to involve the details of only 6.5 million accounts, but a database emerged on the dark web for sale earlier this year with the details of 167 million LinkedIn accounts, including 117 million passwords. That made the hack one of the largest in corporate history.
International dispute
The arrest has caused an international dispute at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Russia, with some even suggesting that those tensions may result in a third world war.
While the arrested man waits in custody for an extradition hearing, a prerequisite in most countries when a suspect is arrested in relation to a crime that did not occur in that country, Russia is demanding that he be handed over to it. “We insist that the detainee is handed over to Russia,” a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Prague is quoted as saying.
The Czech Republic and the United States have had an extradition treaty since 2006 and the country is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. So barring any legal missteps with the extradition hearing, the suspect will eventually be extradited to the United States to face trial.
Image credit: Pixabay/Public Domain CC0
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