Chinese authorities have seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) from family members and associates of retired domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang.

California's Attorney General says cycber criminals are increasingly focusing on California because of its wealth and innovation.

North American financial executives perceived an increase in the rate of online account takeover attacks (63 percent) compared to their global counterparts (50 percent) in 2013, but the actual rate of attempted and actual wire and automated clearinghouse (ACH) fraud related to account takeover is lower in North American financial enterprises than at the global institutions, according to an ACI Worldwide survey, Strategies to Prevent Attacks on Commercial Accounts.

Most small businesses do not involve the police when they catch an employee stealing, new research finds. Sixty-four percent of small businesses have experienced employee theft, but only 16 percent of those reported the incident to police, the study found. Overall, 40 percent of thefts in small businesses are of money, and cash thefts reported in the study range from $5 to $2 million, with $20,000 being the average amount stolen.

Merchandise returns in 2013 cost U.S. retailers more than $267 billion in lost sales, and retail fraud and abuse accounted for $9.1 billion to $16.3 billion in the United States, an increase of 2.6 percent from 2012, according to The Retail Equation’s 2013 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry report.

Identity theft is already a serious problem—the No. 1 complaint to the Federal Trade Commission, and tax-related identity theft is a growing part of this crime spree.

Retailer Neiman Marcus said that thieves stole some of its customers' payment card information and made unauthorized charges over the holiday season.

Ginger Reeder, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., said in an email that the retailer had been notified in mid-December by its credit card processor about potentially unauthorized payment activity following customer purchases at stores, said AP. On Jan. 1, a forensics firm confirmed evidence that the upscale retailer was a victim of a criminal cyber-security intrusion and that some customers' credit and debit cards were possibly compromised as a result, said AP.

Reeder wouldn't estimate how many customers may be affected but said the merchant is notifying customers whose cards it now knows were used fraudulently. Neiman Marcus, which operates more than 40 upscale stores and clearance stores, is working with the Secret Service on the breach, said AP.

"We have begun to contain the intrusion and have taken significant steps to further enhance information security," Reeder wrote.

A California escrow firm that was forced out of business last year after a $1.5 million cyberheist is now suing its former bank to recoup the lost funds.

The identity theft rate for children is 51 times higher than the rate for adults, according to new research. These long-term frauds can be devastating to a child's future, as a preexisting bad credit score can make it difficult to secure student loans, housing or a job.