Feds Bust $70M Hacker Ring

Some $70 million later, a computer-crime ring that was stealing from small business, municipalities, and churches in the United States was busted by authorities working across four countries. The FBI, working with teams in the U.K., the Netherlands and Ukraine, reeled in more than 100 people this week, who were using a sophisticated version of the Zeus malware. Preying on small businesses with gaps in their security software, the group — whose programmers were mostly based in Ukraine — stole hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time from about 400 victims. They were set to take up to $220 million, but many of the transactions were not completed. The "technical sophistication of their operation made it difficult to investigate and disrupt," one FBI agent said. Still, various iterations of the Zeus operation continue to function around the world.