In more than 20 years of reporting on cybercrime, Wall Street Journal reporter Robert McMillan has never come face-to-face with a criminal hacker. Until he met Dmitry Smilyanets. 

Dmitry grew up during the fall of the Soviet Union, a computer-loving kid with big dreams. He became part of a generation of Russian hackers who cut their teeth in the early days of the internet and went from stealing passwords to hacking some of America’s biggest companies. This is the story of how Dmitry became one of the best.

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