A round-up of today's other stories in brief

US authorities shut down ring linked to €69m PC cyber crime

US authorities claimed one of their biggest victories against cyber crime as they shut down a ring they said used malicious software to take control of PCs around the world, and may have led to the theft of more than $100 million (€69 million).

A computer virus, dubbed Coreflood, infected more than two million PCs, enslaving them into a “botnet” that grabbed banking credentials and other sensitive data its masters used to steal funds via fraudulent banking and wire transactions, the US department of justice said this week.

The government shuttered that botnet, which had operated for a decade, by seizing hard drives used to run it after a federal court in Connecticut gave the go-ahead. – (Reuters)

Eight firms sign up with TerminalFour

TerminalFour, the web content management company, said eight firms have signed up to resell its software since this year. New partners include New City Media in the US, GamCom in the UK, System Dynamics in Ireland and HiTech in Bahrain. “Our partners are opening up new markets and territories, enabling us to scale beyond what we could achieve organically,” said Mike O’Donoghue, a vice-president with TerminalFour.

Smart Start gives start-up details

Smart Start, the new accelerator programme for start-ups, has announced details of the first five companies to receive its support. Recruitlegal.com, Paretos CRM, Click4ESOL, Aqua Fresh Fish and GolfersDen will each receive €12,000 in seed funding and will start on a four-month programme of business and financial mentoring to help them fast-track their ideas towards commercial deployment.

Smart Start was founded by business mentor and trainer Gerry Moan. It is supported by Enterprise Ireland and is based at Dundalk Institute of Technology.

The five companies were chosen from a list of more than 150 applications.