The growing online mugshot-removal racket — where arrestees pay sometimes hundreds of dollars to remove their mugs — is being hit with extortion accusations in a novel lawsuit testing the bounds of the First Amendment.

The growing online mugshot-removal racket — where arrestees pay sometimes hundreds of dollars to remove their mugs — is being hit with extortion accusations in a novel lawsuit testing the bounds of the First Amendment.

BOSTON — Microsoft and the FBI, aided by authorities in more than 80 countries, have launched a major assault on one of the world's biggest cybercrime rings, believed to have stolen more than $500 million from bank accounts over the past 18 months.

After years of declines, spam email is roaring back, and the culprit appears to be the booming stock market.

McAfee, Intel's (INTC, Fortune 500) security unit, reported this week that it counted 1.9 trillion global spam messages in March. While the number is not record-breaking, it is twice the volume counted in December.

A former Lloyds bank worker in charge of online security has been jailed for five years over a £2.4m fraud. Jessica Harper, 50, submitted false invoices to claim payments between 2007 and 2011. She said: "I saw the opportunity and thought: 'Given the hours I work I deserve it'.

Criminal hackers have found a way round the latst generation of online banking security devices given out by banks, the BBC has learned.