Russia's Hackers

I think there may be a disproportionate number of geniuses in Russia. Certainly, there is a large population of highly-educated, incredibly smart (whether self-taught or in schools) citizens running around without very good jobs.

Let's examine this equation.

Smart people + limited opportunity = big problems

An interesting 2001 article by Wired News talks about the hacking/cracking culture in Russia. Stealing passwords, credit card numbers, and information from business or government websites, and finding/exploiting weaknesses in MS Windows and other operations systems is a lucrative business.

Moscow hacker pay: $109 USD ($3000 rubles) per job
College professor pay: $ 150 USD per month

In 1995, a man named Vladimir Levin removed $5.7 million dollars from Citibank accounts using his home computer and a dial-up connection.

You can buy password-cracking software on the street for about $4 USD.

There are some very sophisticated Russian hacking websites where you can download all sorts of nifty software/tools/security weakness information, look for jobs, trade notes, etc.