Hackers say they have Romney's tax returns, holding for ransom

An unidentified team of hackers say they've stolen Mitt Romney's tax returns and will make them public unless his campaign forks out $1 million in "ransom." The hackers say they made off with Romney's pre-2010 returns after gaining access to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers office in Tennessee, reports Mashable. They have threatened to make the returns public unless they receive the payoff in the hard-to-trace BitCoin online currency by Sept. 28.

The hackers say they sent flash drives containing copies of the returns to Democratic and Republican party offices. The Secret Service is investigating the claims, and has seized flash drives received at the offices, reports the Nashville Tennessean. Officials at both offices say they made no attempt to access the information on the flash drives. A spokesman for PriceWaterhouseCoopers says the company is working closely with the Secret Service, and managers haven't discovered any evidence of unauthorized access to Romney's returns.