Teen 'cybercrime kingpin' arrested

The 18-year-old New Zealander's screenname is "AKILL," and he is the alleged head "of an international cyber crime network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers" and stealing $20+ million from victims' bank accounts, the Associated Press reports. "Working with the FBI and police in the Netherlands, New Zealand police raided" his house in Hamilton and took him and several computers in custody. His arrest was part of an international crackdown on criminal hackers who hack or social-engineer their way into large numbers of computers, install malicious software, and take control of the machines, turning them into "zombies." The zombie computers become part of large networks (or "botnets") of computers that can launch denial-of-service attacks on large Web commercial Web sites, extort, manipulate stocks, etc. "Eight people have been indicted, pleaded guilty or have been convicted since the investigation started in June."