Kimberly Zenz

Kimberly Zenz
Kimberly Zenz
Born	Kimberly Therese Amira Franz Karl Zenz; 1977[1]
Nationality	American
Citizenship	American
Spouse(s)	Dmitry Levashov

Kimberly Zenz is Head of Threat Intelligence at the Deutsche Cyber-Sicherheitsorganisation (German Cyber Security Organization), and a former senior threat analyst at iDefense. In 2019, a Moscow court reportedly accused her of passing along Russian state secrets to U.S. intelligence officials.

Education

Zenz went to Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia), College of William & Mary, and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service.[2]

Capitol Polo Club

In 2006, Zenz established an elephant polo team, the Capitol Pachyderms.[3][4][5]

In September 2006, the Capitol Pachyderms participated in the King's Cup Elephant Polo Championship in Thailand.[6]

In November 2007, they participated in the 26th Chivas World Elephant Polo Championship in Nepal.[7]

Career in Moscow

In 2006, Zenz began working as a senior analyst for Verisign's iDefense threat intelligence division in Moscow, specializing in Russian hacking groups.[8][9]

In December 2016, she reportedly fled her apartment in Moscow.[10]

U.S. intelligence allegations

In 2010, ChronoPay CEO Pavel Vrublevsky alleged that Zenz had been passing along classified information about his company to U.S. intelligence officials.[11][12][13][14][15]

In 2019, a Moscow court reportedly accused Zenz of passing Russian state secrets to U.S. intelligence officials.[16][17]

Zenz has denied these claims.[18][19]

References

Zak, Dan (August 19, 2006). "What's Large, Gray and Likes to Play Polo?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Many responded. Some were curious, others incredulous. But two were willing to saddle up with intelligence analyst Kimberly Zenz, the team's 29-year-old founder and captain, and her boyfriend and sister.
"About the Team". Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2020. Despite her frequent travels (41 countries and counting), Kimberly is very much a product of Washington, having attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, William & Mary in Williamsburg and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service in the city itself.
Austermuhle, Martin (July 6, 2006). "Elephant Polo Team Hosts Fundraiser". DCist. Archived from the original on October 19, 2006. When you receive an email with this as its first paragraph, you can't help but want to read the rest: My name is Kimberly Zenz I am the captain of the DC Elephant Polo team, and as our name suggests, we play polo on elephants.
"D.C. elephant-polo team gears up for Thailand trip". The Hill. June 30, 2020. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Kimberly Zenz, an avid equestrian and adventuress, created the elephant-polo team about nine months ago.
"About Elephant Polo and FAQ". Archived from the original on January 8, 2007. Retrieved June 30, 2020. We are the DC Elephant Polo team and use that name. We are also the Capitol Pachyderms, as while registering for the King's Cup Tournament at 2am, our fearless leader was in need of a name, and that is what came to her.
Faiola, Anthony (September 10, 2006). "Polo, With a Big Difference Rookies From D.C. Area Travel to Thailand to Vie On the Elephant Circuit". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 21, 2020. Some of the Washington region's best horse polo players entered the benefit game at the Capitol Polo Club, and word spread across the elephant circuit that the D.C. team was a force to be reckoned with. The problem: None of the seasoned veterans from the benefit was actually on the team. Instead, the most skilled among them was Zenz. And her finest hour as a horse polo player came during an exhibition match at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, where she had to compete with a prize pig named Kevin Bacon for the crowd's attention. "I swear, we started from zero," Zenz said. "We practiced on top of a swing set with mallets we made from Home Depot." But when they arrived in this resort town near the Thai border with Burma and Laos, the Americans were seeded second out of 12 teams despite being only one of two all-rookie squads. Though none of the teams has year-round access to elephants -- even the powerhouse Germans practice atop Volkswagen vans -- several have internationally recognized horse polo players on their rosters.
Monro, Lucy (November 24, 2007). "Pachyderm powerhouse performance" (PDF). p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 10, 2016. And so, things got serious on the fourth day. National Parks, under the very experienced leadership of Ram Pritt dispensed with the American Capitol Pachyderms 9:5 in the first World Cup quarter final without conceding a goal - indeed after four days of play Ram Pritt’s men in yellow had yet to concede a single goal!
Kampschror, Beth (October 2, 2009). "Alert: E. Europe ID Hacks". OCCRP. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. For example, an IT professional working legitimately in Moscow makes about $2,000 a month. “My rent is $2,000 a month,” said Kimberly Zenz, a senior threat analyst at VeriSign’s iDefense section.
Poulsen, Kevin (February 22, 2019). "Kremlin accused her of being a U.S. Spy. She offered to go to Moscow". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Zenz worked as an analyst at iDefense for a decade beginning in 2006, about a year after it was acquired by Verisign. She specialized in Russian hacker groups, and divided her time between her home in Northern Virginia, where iDefense was based, and a rented apartment in Moscow.
Eckel, Mike (February 26, 2019). "In Moscow Treason Trial, A Major Scandal For Russian Security Agency". RFERL. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. In December 2016, the same month that Mikhailov and the others were arrested, Zenz fled Russia. Her Moscow apartment was also raided by Russian agents, according to people familiar with the investigation.
Krebs, Brian (January 28, 2017). "A Shakeup in Russia's Top Cybercrime Unit". Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. As it happens, an email that Vrublevsky wrote to a ChronoPay employee in 2010 eerily presages the arrests of Mikhaylov and Stoyanov, voicing Vrublevsky’s suspicion that the two men were closely involved in leaking ChronoPay emails and documents that were seized by Mikhaylov’s own division — the Information Security Center (CDC) of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)..
"ChronoPay email translated" (PDF). KrebslonSecurity. January 28, 2017. Stoyanov has an employee that we know almost nothing about so far - Dmitry Levashov. Levashov was living together for a long time with someone named Kimberly Zenz. She, in turn, is the main official Russia specialist in iDefense.
Murtazin, Irek (January 31, 2017). "FSB colonel detained in the Humpty Dumpty case could be a foreign intelligence agent". Novaya Gazeta. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. And here is what Brian Krebs did not write about. It would be like Stoyanov’s partner in Indrik and his close friend Dmitry Levashov, who was the common-law husband of Kimberly Zenz. It was through Levashov and Stoyanov that Zenz allegedly received information first from Mikhailov, and then from Dokuchaev, with whom Stoyanov introduced her.
Reuters, Svetlana (December 5, 2017). "How America Learned About Russian Hackers". The Bell. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018. Scheme of information leakage from Mikhailov’s group to American intelligence agencies (version of former CBP employee Dmitry Burykh): Sergey Mikhailov, TsIB FSB → Ruslan Stoyanov, former employee of Kaspersky Lab → Dmitry Levashov, former employee of one of Stoyanov's companies → Kimberly Zenz, analyst at iDefense Intelligence (categorically refutes that she transmitted any information along this chain) → Rick Howard, former Director of iDefense Intelligence → William Lynn, former Under Secretary of Defense
"Sources tell Russian newspaper that FSB agents leaked secret data to the FBI for 10 million dollars". Meduza. October 5, 2018. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. As early as 2010, Vrublevsky started accusing Mikhailov and Stoyanov of leaking emails and documents seized from his company by the FSB, saying the latter was “feeding privileged information about important Russian hackers” to Zenz, who was dating one of Stoyanov’s colleagues.
Demchenko, Natalya (April 1, 2019). "The court sentenced to seven years in a colony of the defendant in the case of high treason in the FSB". RBC. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. According to the prosecution, Colonel Mikhailov recorded the information constituting state secrets on two discs, and then through Dokuchaev transferred them to Stoyanov and Fomchenkov, who exported these discs abroad. After this, Stoyanov at the international conference on cybersecurity in Canada handed over the disc to Kimberly Zenz, an employee of the American company I-Defense, and Fomchenkov delivered another disc to the United States.
Eddy, Max (August 9, 2019). "Russian Intel Agencies Are a Toxic Stew of Competition and Sabotage". PC Mag. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Zenz should know. She was accused by a Moscow military court of being a US agent in 2010 ("depending on reporting, the FBI or the CIA"). This was all part of a large and confusing case that swept up (among other people) a Russian cybercriminal, Russian intelligence officials, and Kaspersky researcher Ruslan Stoyanov.
"The Internet has a new curator in the FSB". RBC. July 28, 2017. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Kimberly Zenz in a conversation with RBC said that she was contacted by Alexander Gusak, the lawyer of one of the detainees, Ruslan Stoyanov. “He was interested in the details of my life, our communication with Ruslan Stoyanov and asked if I had paid him or anyone else for information from Russian government agencies,” Zenz said. “I never did that.” I do not work for the CIA, I never transmitted information to them and was not a government agent of any state. "I also declared my readiness to testify to the Russian law enforcement agencies, and they know how to contact me, but did not." Ruslan Stoyanov’s lawyer, Alexander Gusak, confirmed to RBC that Kimberly Zenz had given him written testimony and that they had been transferred to the investigation.
Kravchenko, Stepan (February 22, 2019). "Russia Seeks 20 Years for Cyber-Cops in U.S.-Linked Treason Case". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. “I’m not a government agent and never have been,” Zenz said Feb. 21 in a Facebook message, adding that “there’s no evidence some sort of compact disc was handed over because it never happened.” While she’s known Stoyanov for more than 10 years as an “internationally respected cybercrime investigator who loves his country,” she’s never had contact with the other accused, Zenz said.

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[1] Zak, Dan (August 19, 2006). "What's Large, Gray and Likes to Play Polo?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Many responded. Some were curious, others incredulous. But two were willing to saddle up with intelligence analyst Kimberly Zenz, the team's 29-year-old founder and captain, and her boyfriend and sister.

[2] "About the Team". Archived from the original on August 20, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2020. Despite her frequent travels (41 countries and counting), Kimberly is very much a product of Washington, having attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, William & Mary in Williamsburg and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service in the city itself.

[3] Austermuhle, Martin (July 6, 2006). "Elephant Polo Team Hosts Fundraiser". DCist. Archived from the original on October 19, 2006. When you receive an email with this as its first paragraph, you can't help but want to read the rest: My name is Kimberly Zenz I am the captain of the DC Elephant Polo team, and as our name suggests, we play polo on elephants.

[4] "D.C. elephant-polo team gears up for Thailand trip". The Hill. June 30, 2020. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. Kimberly Zenz, an avid equestrian and adventuress, created the elephant-polo team about nine months ago.

[5] "About Elephant Polo and FAQ". Archived from the original on January 8, 2007. Retrieved June 30, 2020. We are the DC Elephant Polo team and use that name. We are also the Capitol Pachyderms, as while registering for the King's Cup Tournament at 2am, our fearless leader was in need of a name, and that is what came to her.

[6] Faiola, Anthony (September 10, 2006). "Polo, With a Big Difference Rookies From D.C. Area Travel to Thailand to Vie On the Elephant Circuit". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 21, 2020. Some of the Washington region's best horse polo players entered the benefit game at the Capitol Polo Club, and word spread across the elephant circuit that the D.C. team was a force to be reckoned with. The problem: None of the seasoned veterans from the benefit was actually on the team. Instead, the most skilled among them was Zenz. And her finest hour as a horse polo player came during an exhibition match at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, where she had to compete with a prize pig named Kevin Bacon for the crowd's attention. "I swear, we started from zero," Zenz said. "We practiced on top of a swing set with mallets we made from Home Depot." But when they arrived in this resort town near the Thai border with Burma and Laos, the Americans were seeded second out of 12 teams despite being only one of two all-rookie squads. Though none of the teams has year-round access to elephants -- even the powerhouse Germans practice atop Volkswagen vans -- several have internationally recognized horse polo players on their rosters.

[7] Monro, Lucy (November 24, 2007). "Pachyderm powerhouse performance" (PDF). p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 10, 2016. And so, things got serious on the fourth day. National Parks, under the very experienced leadership of Ram Pritt dispensed with the American Capitol Pachyderms 9:5 in the first World Cup quarter final without conceding a goal - indeed after four days of play Ram Pritt’s men in yellow had yet to concede a single goal!

[8] Kampschror, Beth (October 2, 2009). "Alert: E. Europe ID Hacks". OCCRP. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. For example, an IT professional working legitimately in Moscow makes about $2,000 a month. “My rent is $2,000 a month,” said Kimberly Zenz, a senior threat analyst at VeriSign’s iDefense section.

[9] Poulsen, Kevin (February 22, 2019). "Kremlin accused her of being a U.S. Spy. She offered to go to Moscow". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Zenz worked as an analyst at iDefense for a decade beginning in 2006, about a year after it was acquired by Verisign. She specialized in Russian hacker groups, and divided her time between her home in Northern Virginia, where iDefense was based, and a rented apartment in Moscow.

[10] Eckel, Mike (February 26, 2019). "In Moscow Treason Trial, A Major Scandal For Russian Security Agency". RFERL. Archived from the original on June 23, 2020. In December 2016, the same month that Mikhailov and the others were arrested, Zenz fled Russia. Her Moscow apartment was also raided by Russian agents, according to people familiar with the investigation.

[11] Krebs, Brian (January 28, 2017). "A Shakeup in Russia's Top Cybercrime Unit". Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. As it happens, an email that Vrublevsky wrote to a ChronoPay employee in 2010 eerily presages the arrests of Mikhaylov and Stoyanov, voicing Vrublevsky’s suspicion that the two men were closely involved in leaking ChronoPay emails and documents that were seized by Mikhaylov’s own division — the Information Security Center (CDC) of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)..

[12] "ChronoPay email translated" (PDF). KrebslonSecurity. January 28, 2017. Stoyanov has an employee that we know almost nothing about so far - Dmitry Levashov. Levashov was living together for a long time with someone named Kimberly Zenz. She, in turn, is the main official Russia specialist in iDefense.

[13] Murtazin, Irek (January 31, 2017). "FSB colonel detained in the Humpty Dumpty case could be a foreign intelligence agent". Novaya Gazeta. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. And here is what Brian Krebs did not write about. It would be like Stoyanov’s partner in Indrik and his close friend Dmitry Levashov, who was the common-law husband of Kimberly Zenz. It was through Levashov and Stoyanov that Zenz allegedly received information first from Mikhailov, and then from Dokuchaev, with whom Stoyanov introduced her.

[14] Reuters, Svetlana (December 5, 2017). "How America Learned About Russian Hackers". The Bell. Archived from the original on January 23, 2018. Scheme of information leakage from Mikhailov’s group to American intelligence agencies (version of former CBP employee Dmitry Burykh): Sergey Mikhailov, TsIB FSB → Ruslan Stoyanov, former employee of Kaspersky Lab → Dmitry Levashov, former employee of one of Stoyanov's companies → Kimberly Zenz, analyst at iDefense Intelligence (categorically refutes that she transmitted any information along this chain) → Rick Howard, former Director of iDefense Intelligence → William Lynn, former Under Secretary of Defense

[15] "Sources tell Russian newspaper that FSB agents leaked secret data to the FBI for 10 million dollars". Meduza. October 5, 2018. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. As early as 2010, Vrublevsky started accusing Mikhailov and Stoyanov of leaking emails and documents seized from his company by the FSB, saying the latter was “feeding privileged information about important Russian hackers” to Zenz, who was dating one of Stoyanov’s colleagues.

[16] Demchenko, Natalya (April 1, 2019). "The court sentenced to seven years in a colony of the defendant in the case of high treason in the FSB". RBC. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. According to the prosecution, Colonel Mikhailov recorded the information constituting state secrets on two discs, and then through Dokuchaev transferred them to Stoyanov and Fomchenkov, who exported these discs abroad. After this, Stoyanov at the international conference on cybersecurity in Canada handed over the disc to Kimberly Zenz, an employee of the American company I-Defense, and Fomchenkov delivered another disc to the United States.

[17] Eddy, Max (August 9, 2019). "Russian Intel Agencies Are a Toxic Stew of Competition and Sabotage". PC Mag. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Zenz should know. She was accused by a Moscow military court of being a US agent in 2010 ("depending on reporting, the FBI or the CIA"). This was all part of a large and confusing case that swept up (among other people) a Russian cybercriminal, Russian intelligence officials, and Kaspersky researcher Ruslan Stoyanov.

[18] "The Internet has a new curator in the FSB". RBC. July 28, 2017. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Kimberly Zenz in a conversation with RBC said that she was contacted by Alexander Gusak, the lawyer of one of the detainees, Ruslan Stoyanov. “He was interested in the details of my life, our communication with Ruslan Stoyanov and asked if I had paid him or anyone else for information from Russian government agencies,” Zenz said. “I never did that.” I do not work for the CIA, I never transmitted information to them and was not a government agent of any state. "I also declared my readiness to testify to the Russian law enforcement agencies, and they know how to contact me, but did not." Ruslan Stoyanov’s lawyer, Alexander Gusak, confirmed to RBC that Kimberly Zenz had given him written testimony and that they had been transferred to the investigation.

[19] Kravchenko, Stepan (February 22, 2019). "Russia Seeks 20 Years for Cyber-Cops in U.S.-Linked Treason Case". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. “I’m not a government agent and never have been,” Zenz said Feb. 21 in a Facebook message, adding that “there’s no evidence some sort of compact disc was handed over because it never happened.” While she’s known Stoyanov for more than 10 years as an “internationally respected cybercrime investigator who loves his country,” she’s never had contact with the other accused, Zenz said.