Two Western Australian men appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday charged over their alleged roles in the international cybercrime syndicate TeamPCP, which allegedly stole data from more than half a million users worldwide. Louis Gaebler and Ruben Thomson, aged 23 and 21, were arrested on Wednesday following a four-month investigation by international agencies and police raids across Perth and Mandurah.

Police allege the syndicate inserted malicious code into open-source software repositories in a supply chain attack launched in March. The breach compromised government systems, academic institutions and private businesses, resulting in the theft of more than 500,000 credentials and hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, according to the Australian Federal Police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rebecca Peppiatt reports for The Age.