Kristina Svechinskaya

Kristina Vladimirovna Svechinskaya (Russian: Кристина Владимировна Свечинская, born February 16, 1989) is a former Russian money mule hacker. While studying at New York University, in 2010 she was accused of a plot to defraud British and U.S. banks and usage of false passports. According to charges, Svechinskaya used a Zeus Trojan horse to attack thousands of bank accounts and opened at least five accounts in Bank of America and Wachovia,[1] which received $35,000 (£22,000) of stolen money. It is estimated that with nine other people, Svechinskaya had skimmed $3 million in total.[2] The upcoming Russian film Botnet is partially based on Svechinskaya's story.[3]

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

Early life

Fluent in English, Svechinskaya originally studied at Stavropol State University.[4] According to Svechinskaya's mother, after the death of Kristina's father their family was living on a 12,000 ruble (US$400 at the time) salary. In her third year, Kristina chose the Work & Travel program and in the summer of 2010 arrived in Massachusetts,[4] where she started to work in a fast food outlet.

Hacker

Her earnings were small and she moved to New York and worked as a hacker's money mule.[4] Svechinskaya was offered an 8–10% share of taken money.[5] Her sentence was expected to be announced in June 2011,[6] but Svechinskaya signed a personal recognizance bond[6] and was released under $25,000 bail.[7] In 2016, Svechinskaya made a YouTube presentation of SmartFlash, marketed as secure cloud-based USB flash drive to store unlimited amount of data.[8]

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