Alexey Ivanov was exactly the kind of person to benefit from the early-2000's dot-com boom: He was bright, talented, and knew his stuff. His only problem was the fact that he was born in Chelyabinsk, a sleepy Russian town in the middle of nowhere…when he sent his resume to American companies, nobody was willing to bet on him. Alexey came up with a 'brilliant' idea: hacking American corporations, and then blackmailing them - forcing them to hire his services as a 'security consultant.'