Kazakhstan to extradite Russian cyber expert to Moscow despite US requests

pppKazakhstan will reportedly extradite a prominent Russian cybersecurity expert to Moscow after refusing to send him to the USppNikita Kislitsin who was detained in Kazakhstan earlier in June at the request of the US will face hacking and extortion charges in his home country according to Moscows Prosecutor Generals OfficeppThere was no official confirmation from Kazakhstan at the time of writing In October the Kazakh prosecutors office said that Kislitsins extradition decision could take up to one year to make The agency hasnt responded to a request for commentppKislitsin served as the head of network security at cybersecurity company GroupIB and its Russiabased spinoff FACCT He was also an editor of the popular Russian magazine called HackerppRussian authorities said in a statement on Thursday that in October of last year Kislitsin together with his accomplices unlawfully gained access to the server data of one of the commercial organizations and copied itppHaving received the data they demanded a ransom of nearly 6000 in cryptocurrency to prevent the publication of this information the Russian investigation saidppAt the same time the US wanted Kislitsins extradition for a different reason In an indictment unveiled in 2020 the US Department of Justice alleges that Kislitsin was linked to a cyberattack on the nowdefunct social media company Formspring in 2012 when hackers managed to obtain and sell usernames and passwords belonging to American customersppThe main perpetrator in this case is another Russian citizen Yevgeniy Nikulin who was found guilty in the US for allegedly stealing roughly 117 million usernames and passwords from Formspring LinkedIn and DropboxppAt the time GroupIB said that the US indictment only contains allegations and no findings have been made that Kislitsin has engaged in any wrongdoing The company also said that Kislitsins indictment was built solely on his alleged connection to one of the episodes in Nikulins caseppAfter being detained in Kazakhstan Kislitsin said that he was determined to go back to his homeland and had no plans to consider other options such as seeking asylum in KazakhstanppKislitsins case was the latest dispute between Moscow and Washington over accused Russian cybercriminals and spies held in other countries at the request of the US authoritiesppRussia reportedly sent a note to Kazakhstans Foreign Ministry urging authorities not to extradite Kislitsin to the US Once in Russia Kislitsin could evade transfer to the US a tactic that Moscow has employed in the pastppIn Russia Kislitsin could face up to seven years in prison but it is unclear whether he denies the charges against himppAnother figure associated with GroupIB cofounder Ilya Sachkov was sentenced in July to 14 years in a Russian prison colony on topsecret charges of treason Sachkov denies the accusationsppDaryna Antoniuk is a reporter for Recorded Future News based in Ukraine She writes about cybersecurity startups cyberattacks in Eastern Europe and the state of the cyberwar between Ukraine and Russia She previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine Her work has also been published at Sifted The Kyiv Independent and The Kyiv Postpp Copyright 2024 The Record from Recorded Future Newsp