Cops have toppled a $530 million cybercrime empire
Investigators have carried out one of the biggest takedowns ever of an online crime ring.
The scams: Set up in 2010, the self-styled Infraud Organization (motto: “In Fraud We Trust”) trafficked credit card details, Social Security numbers, and other stolen information on the dark web. It’s thought to have caused $530 million of losses to victims.
The bust: Svyatoslav Bondarenko, a Ukrainian, launched the group, which had almost 11,000 members. He and 35 other ringleaders have have now been indicted by the US Department of Justice.
Why it matters: Cybercrime is a big business, with hackers stealing $172 billion from people in 2017, and coordinating crackdowns across borders is tough. That makes this multinational bust a huge—if all too rare—success.
Deep Dive
Computing
Learning to code isn’t enough
Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.
IBM wants to build a 100,000-qubit quantum computer
The company wants to make large-scale quantum computers a reality within just 10 years.
The inside story of New York City’s 34-year-old social network, ECHO
Stacy Horn set out to create something new and very New York. She didn’t expect it to last so long.
Delivering a quantum future
Innovations require engineering breakthroughs and focus on real computational problems.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.