The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday unsealed a 2014 indictment alleging that a current cybersecurity executive was involved a conspiracy to sell usernames and passwords belonging to American customers of the social media company Formspring in 2012.
The man identified in the indictment, Nikita Kislitsin, allegedly received data stolen from Formspring, then tried to sell that information to others. Kislitsin currently works as head of network security at Group-IB, a cybersecurity vendor with offices in Moscow and Singapore. He joined the company in January 2013, roughly six months after prosecutors say a hacker provided Kislitsin with credentials from Formspring to sell.
U.S. prosecutors have not alleged any wrongdoing by Group-IB.
In a statement to CyberScoop, the company said Kistlitsin still is an employee, and that Group-IB considers the accusations as “only allegations,” arguing that “no findings have been made that Nikita Kislitsin has engaged in any wrongdoing.”
At one point in 2013, Group-IB representatives and Kislitsin himself met with members of the Justice Department to discuss Kislitsin’s “research” into the “underground,” which he conducted before joining the company, a Group-IB spokesperson said in a statement to CyberScoop. Prior to joining the company, he worked as a researcher and as the editor of a magazine called “Hacker,” and he never concealed his prior activity during the hiring process, according to Group-IB. He also worked as an independent threat researcher in the U.S. in 2012.
The company intends to “support” Kislitsin, and now is consulting with international lawyers to discuss next steps. The firm maintains that it is dedicated to working with glob ..
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