US shuts down massive cyber crime ring

US authorities claimed one of their biggest victories against cyber crime as they shut down a ring they said used malicious software to take control of more than two million PCs around the world, and may have led to theft of more than $US100 million.

A computer virus, dubbed Coreflood, infected more than two million PCs, enslaving them into a “botnet” that grabbed banking credentials and other sensitive data its masters used to steal funds via fraudulent banking and wire transactions, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The government shuttered that botnet, which had operated for a decade, by seizing hard drives used to run it after a federal court in Connecticut gave the go-ahead — via redwolf.newsvine.com