FBI arrests 24 in card fraud takedown

The FBI has arrested two dozen people in what it says is the culmination of a two-year investigation into the online trafficking of credit card data.

The bureau said that law enforcers have apprehended 24 people, including six individuals in the UK for their involvement in a massive cybercrime ring which included the sale of malware and credit card data.

According to the FBI, the defendants, who were spread across eight countries worldwide, connected with other criminal groups to buy and sell credit card account information to commit fraud as well as dealing in malware and botnet tools. The bureau is did not release the names or charges filed in the international cases.

The arrests are part of a two-year undercover effort by the FBI to monitor and collect data on 'carding' forums which allow users to trade in stolen credit card data and tools used to harvest personal information.

In total, the FBI believes that the operation will prevent the use of some 400,000 people's information and upwards of $200m in fraudulent activity.

"The co-ordinated law enforcement actions taken by an unprecedented number of countries around the world today demonstrate that hackers and fraudsters cannot count on being able to prowl the internet in anonymity and with impunity, even across national boundaries," said US attorney Preet Bahara.

"Clever computer criminals operating behind the supposed veil of the internet are still subject to the long arm of the law."

Among those arrested in the operation were members of 'UGNazi,' a hacking group which had claimed responsibility to last week's Twitter outage. The company has denied the claim, saying that the outage was due to a software error.