Kristina Svechinskaya

Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya
Born (1989-02-16) February 16, 1989
Occupation money mule

Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya (Russian: Кристина Владимировна Свечинская, born February 16, 1989) is a former Russian money mule hacker. While studying at the New York University, in 2010 she was accused of a plot to defraud several British and U.S. banks of sizeable sums and usage of false passports.[1] According to charges, Svechinskaya used Zeus trojan horse to attack thousands of bank accounts and opened at least five accounts in Bank of America and Wachovia,[2] which received $35,000 (£22,000) of money theft.[1] It is estimated that with nine other people Svechinskaya had skimmed $3 million in total.[1][3] Svechinskaya was dubbed by the media "the world's sexiest computer hacker" for her raunchy, but casual appearance and was compared to Anna Chapman.[1] The upcoming Russian film Botnet is partially based on Svechinskaya's story.[4]

Life

Fluent in English, Svechinskaya was originally studying at the Stavropol State University.[5] According to Svechinskaya's mother, after the death of Kristina's father their family was living on a sole 12,000 ruble ($400 USD at the time) salary. While in her third year, Kristina chose the Work & Travel program and in the summer of 2010 arrived in Massachusetts,[5] where she started to work in a fast food branch. The earnings in Massachusetts, however, were small and she moved to New York where she chose to work as a hacker's money mule.[5] Svechinskaya was offered an 8–10% share of taken money.[6] The sentence was expected to be announced in June 2011,[7] but after the arrest Svechinskaya signed a personal recognizance bond[7] and was released under $25,000 bail.[8] In case of conviction, Svechinskaya could have been imprisoned for up to 40 years.[1] This would have included the plot charge (30 years and the $1 million fine) and the false passports charge (10 years and the $250,000 fine). In 2016, Svechinskaya made a YouTube presentation of SmartFlash, marketed as secure cloud-based USB flash drive to store unlimited amount of data.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Leonard, Tom (2010-10-14). "World's 'sexiest computer hacker' appears in court charged with $3m computer scam". London: Daily Mail. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  2. ↑ Владимир Козловский. В деле о хакерах таблоиды США нашли вторую Чэпман (in Russian). BBC Russian Service. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  3. ↑ "Kristina Svechinskaya: Accused Russian Hacker". CBS News. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  4. ↑ Мария Мухина (2015-05-12). "Николай Волчков: "25-й Этаж" создавался как компания полного цикла»" (in Russian). «Бюллетень Кинопрокатчика». Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  5. 1 2 3 В США ставропольскую студентку обвинили в банковском мошенничестве (in Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
  6. ↑ Ставропольской студентке Кристине Свечинской грозит до 40 лет тюрьмы (in Russian). Komsomolskaya Pravda. Retrieved 2011-07-20.
  7. 1 2 Россиянку, подозреваемую в США в мошенничестве, отпустят под залог (in Russian). RIA Novosti. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  8. ↑ Суд над арестованными в США по обвинению в кибермошенничестве российскими студентами завершится в ближайшие месяцы (in Russian). Information Security. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
  9. ↑ "Kristina Svechinskaya - introduce SmartFlash". YouTube. 22 March 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
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