A gang of Romanian 'cyber terrorists' has blackmailed several top American firms to the tune of up to $50,000 apiece. The gang gained unauthorised access to protected databases, downloaded files, and threatened to publish sensitive commercial data on the Internet, if their demands weren't met.

A number of unnamed companies alerted the FBI, which in turn joined forces with the Special Investigations Unit of the Romanian Supreme Court. The unlikely team tracked the gang to their home town of Sibiu in Transylvania, The Sunday Herald reports.

The gang of digital extortionists consisted of high school dropouts and the unemployed, the oldest of which was 25. The ringleaders were arrested when they attempted to withdraw $3600 from an ATM in their home town.

Romanian authorities have detained the ringleaders for 30 days of questioning, but the rest of the gang has been released on police bail, to the dismay of the law enforcement agencies,

It seems that vampires aren't the only thing capable of bite in Transylvania these days. ®