An worker at a Russian cybersecurity vendor has discovered himself on the middle of a geopolitical tussle between the US and Russia, with each international locations searching for his extradition from Kazakhstan on hacking expenses.
Nikita Kislitsin was previously head of community safety at Group-IB. When the Russian menace intelligence agency left the nation to re-form in Singapore, its Russia enterprise turned a brand new firm branded as FACCT: Battle Towards Cybercrime Applied sciences.
Read more on Group-IB: Cybersecurity CEO Arrested in Russia on Treason Charges
Nonetheless, the safety researcher is wanted by the US in reference to expenses he hacked social networking firm Formspring in 2012 and conspired with one other Russian man to promote clients’ usernames and passwords.
On June 22 he was detained in Kazakhstan following an extradition request from Washington. That was shortly adopted by a second request for extradition from Moscow.
Nonetheless, regardless of experiences suggesting the latter was profitable, the authorities in Astana have but to determine on the perfect plan of action, based on Reuters.
Though hacking expenses have reportedly been filed in opposition to Kislitsin in a Moscow court docket, it stays to be seen whether or not he can be tried if extradited. Russia’s monitor document on such issues is often to shelter people, so long as any menace exercise they conduct is concentrated on states deemed unfriendly to the Putin regime.
Kislitsin would definitely be hoping to keep away from the identical destiny as Ilya Sachkov, the founding father of Group-IB, who was final month sentenced to 14 years in jail for treason after allegedly sending state secrets and techniques overseas.
Though a former Soviet republic, Kazakhstan lately angered its former colonial grasp by refusing to help Russia’s ‘particular navy operation’ in Ukraine.
