First off, something’s up with the LIBOR. Anybody know what the meaning of this could be? I didn’t want to post just reposting one tweet, so I’m adding this tweet to my hacker diary:
Second, the hacker Nikulin has been extradited from Prague to the U.S. today (CNN):
Suspected Russian hacker extradited to US
(CNN) A Russian hacker suspected of stealing 117 million LinkedIn passwords in 2012 has been extradited to the United States after a protracted diplomatic struggle between the US and Russia, the Czech Justice Ministry said on Friday.
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Nikulin was arrested by Czech police in Prague in 2016 after US authorities issued an international arrest warrant for him. A grand jury indictment filed in 2016 in California charged him with computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft, among other offenses.
According to the indictment, Nikulin managed to break into LinkedIn's computers in March 2012 because he stole the username and password of an employee who worked at the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters.
More on this guy from the Guardian
Alleged hacker held in Prague at center of 'intense' US-Russia tug of war
There is no acknowledged link between Nikulin’s alleged offences and the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, but his arrest came just three days before the Obama administration formally accused Russia of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee and disclosing them through WikiLeaks.
Formspring, one of the sites he allegedly hacked, was the platform used for sexting by Anthony Weiner, the former New York mayoral candidate and husband of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide. The discovery of emails linked to Clinton on Weiner’s laptop damaged her campaign in its final two weeks after the FBI director, James Comey, revealed their existence.
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“He was never formally accused at that time. I think the reason is that he was recruited [by the Russian security services],” said Ondrej Kundra, political editor with the Czech weekly magazine Respekt, which has reported that the Russian services offer alleged offenders immunity from prosecution in exchange for collaboration.
I’m the local Louise Mensch cheerleader, and this pertains to one of her big four assertions that people routinely insult me for believing. The four are:
- Russians actively funded Black Lives Matter activists (which turned out to be true).
- The Marshal of the Supreme Court delivered some sort of official paperwork to Trump on the airport tarmac before he left for his big Saudi “orb” trip.
- We will soon have either President Hatch or President Mattis replacing President Trump.
- Anthony Weiner’s computer was hacked in connection with his crime of sexting an underage victim.
Looks like we will soon find out if Nikulin was indeed up to any dirty tricks with Weiner’s laptop and Formspring. Either way, I will post a follow up post.
On the other hand, Mensch really does drive me bananas sometimes. Like today.
Yes, she has been all over reporting the hanky-panky going on at the RNC convention between the GOP and the Russians, from the very start. But the article she links to does NOT mention Preibus and Ryan on intercepts with the Russians, just that Mueller is investigating whether they talked with them.
