A Russian Accused of Involvement in Massive Cybercrime Group Pleads Not Guilty

Softpedia.com reported on 13th August 2013 that Dmitriy Smilianets, a 29 year old Russian, has pleaded not guilty to the charge. He is one of the five individuals indicted in July 2013 for taking part in a cybercriminal campaign involving 160 million stolen credit card numbers.

Each person in the gang of five had a different role assigned to him, according to prosecutors.

The group including Smilianets is charged for breaking and implanting malware in the networks of 7-Eleven, NASDAQ, JCPenny, JetBlue, Dexia, Wet Seal, Ingenicard and Dow Jones.

The fraudsters broke into their targeted networks by employing SQL (Structured Query Language) injection attacks. These take the benefit of fragile server configurations and insert malicious code into database and once in, the attackers can upload software and drain off data.

Prosecutors allege that Smilianets sold the stolen data including credit card data starting from $10 for an American number to $50 for an European number.

Smilianets was extradited to the United States in September 2012 and since then remained in federal custody. In Russia, he was most widely known as the founder of championship of electronic gaming team called Moscow 5 which travelled throughout the world for competitions. He handled Dima Brave and Dima Bold Online before he was arrested in Netherlands in 2012.

Themalaymailonline.com published a statement on 7th August 2013 quoting Smilianets's attorney Bruce Provda as saying "Smilianets intends to fight the charges for long and he is well funded by his family and friends."

Provda said that his client is not cooperating with the US Attorney's Office in Newark which investigated the case with US Secret Service.

Themalaymailonline.com published a statement on 7th August 2013 quoting attorney Paul Fishman in Newark as saying "He even offered quantity discounts to repeat customers and was also responsible for distributing and laundering the proceeds."

However, if convicted by the court of law for the offences committed by him, he (Smilianets) faces upto 30 years each for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for wire fraud along with five years each for gaining unauthorized access to computers and conspiracy to gain access.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/22/2013