A group of financial fraudsters worked with foreign hackers to access unpublished press releases and trade on the information therein, federal authorities said Tuesday.
The U.S.-based traders worked with Eastern European computer hackers to target press release distribution companies in a scheme that netted over $100 million in ill-gotten gains. Nine people have been arrested in the case, The New York Times reports.
This kind of stock-trading cybercrime has become a growing problem for law enforcement. In November, the cybersecurity firm FireEye [fortune-stock symbol=”FEYE”] published a report on a group that has been targeting pharmaceutical and health care executives in order to get ahold of confidential information, likely for an illegal edge in the markets.
The latest incident appears to echo a 2005 case against an Estonian financial services firm called Lohmus Haavel & Viisemann, the Wall Street Journal notes. That group, which also stole press releases electronically, made off with nearly $8 billion before settling with the SEC for $14 million in the end.
At least six government agencies—the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. attorney’s offices in Brooklyn and New Jersey—will bring the charges against the group, the Journal reports.
- Essay: The Tyre Nichols Videos Demand Solemnity, Not Sensationalism
- For People With Disabilities, Losing Abortion Access Can Be a Matter of Life or Death
- Inside the Stealth Efforts to Smuggle Starlink Internet Into Iran
- Natasha Lyonne on Poker Face and Creating Characters Who Subvert Leading-Lady Tropes
- How to Help the Victims and Community After the Monterey Park Shooting
- Why Grocery Staples Are So Expensive Right Now
- Quantum Computers Could Solve Countless Problems—and Create a Lot of New Ones
- Where to Watch All of the 2023 Oscar Nominees
- How to Be Mindful if You Hate Meditating