FBI and Microsoft take down $500m-theft botnet Citadel

The FBI and Microsoft have broken up a huge network of hijacked home computers responsible for stealing more than $500m (£323m) from bank accounts.

The Citadel network had remotely installed a keylogging program on about five million machines to steal data, BBC reports.
About 1,000 of the 1,400 or so networks that made up the Citadel botnet are believed to have been shut down.

Co-ordinated action in 80 countries by police forces, tech firms and banking bodies helped to disrupt the network.
"The bad guys will feel the punch in the gut," Richard Boscovich, a spokesman for Microsoft's digital crimes unit said.

The cybercriminals behind Citadel cashed in by using login and password details for online bank accounts stolen from compromised computers.

This method was used to steal cash from a huge number of banks including American Express, Bank of America, PayPal, HSBC, Royal Bank of Canada and Wells Fargo.