U.S. Shutters Massive Cyber Theft Ring

In one of the biggest victories against cyber crime, U.S authorities shut down a ring they claim used malicious software to take control of more than 2 million PCs around the world.

According to Reuters, the ring used a computer virus called Coreflood to tether millions of PCs to a botnet that stole banking credentials and other sensitive data that was then used to steal funds via fraudulent banking and wire transactions.

A federal court in Connecticut gave the go-ahead for investigators to seize five major computer servers that were controlling infected computers, as well as 29 domain names the botnet used to communicate with those servers, reports Federal News Radio.

While the majority of infected computers were in the U.S., Alan Paller, director of research at the SAN Institute, believes a Russian crime ring was behind the botnet.