Computer Press!

TARING alluringly into the camera with dazzling blue eyes and a rather daring outfit is the Russian student accused of a plot to defraud British and US banks of millions.

Kristina Svechinskaya, 21, has been dubbed the “world’s sexiest computer hacker” after being charged with being part of a gang aiming to steal $223 million. Wearing leather boots and skin-tight jeans, she wept during a court appearance this week. She was expected to appear in court again yesterday, charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and false use of passports. If convicted, she could be jailed for up to 40 years.

A hacker who calls himself Kirllos has obtained and is now offering to sell 1.5 million Facebook IDs at astonishingly low prices — $25 per 1000 IDs for users with fewer than 10 friends and $45 per 1000 IDs for users with more than 10 friends — according to researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense. Looking at the numbers, Kirllos has stolen the IDs of one out of every 300 Facebook users. Information for sale includes login credentials; whether or not the e-mail addresses and passwords are legitimate is currently unknown. Typically, this information would be sold for between $1 and $20 per account, according to data from Symantec. Currently, around 700,000 accounts have been sold. The threads where the accounts are being sold have been removed, as far as we are able to tell.