Ukrainian Hacker gets 2 years Imprisonment in Press Release Hacking Scheme

One Ukrainian hacker was sent to prison for over 2 years due to his involvement in the international scheme, i.e. hacking news releases that are yet to be published to net around $30 Mn in profits illegally.

Kiev's Vadym lermolovych was sent to prison for 30 months by federal court of New Jersey and was also ordered to pay over $3 Mn in restitution, as announced by the Justice Department on Monday.

Scheme involves hack of 3 business newswires; stealing unpublished press releases of the public companies, which consists of financial information; and then using the information for making trades to generate illegal profit of approximately $30 Mn.

Madeline Cox Arleo, U.S. District Judge of Newark, New Jersey, sentenced Lermolovych for 1yr. after pleading guilty of conspiracy for committing the wire fraud, conspiracy for committing the computer hacking, along with aggravating the identity theft. tech.firstpost.com posted on May 23rd, 2017, stating that the lawyer of defendant was not available immediately for any comment.

Authorities have said that illegal scheme comprises 150,000 news releases theft from Marketwired, PR Newswire and Business Wire in between Feb. 2010 and Aug. 2015. Authorities further said that traders, including several with Russian ties, give the hackers "shopping lists" of releases they required, and also traded in companies like Home Depot Co, Panera Bread Co, and Caterpillar Inc.

Prosecutors also said that hackers has used many cyberattacks for gaining access to newswires in between Feb. 2010 and Aug. 2015, thus stealing the financial press releases which the hackers shared with the traders by using the overseas computer server.

Authorities added that hackers acquired illegal access to newswires computer networks by using the phishing as well as SQL injection attacks. The hackers stole press releases which contained the upcoming announcements regarding revenues, earnings, and other private and confidential information regarding the public companies.

Then the information was shared with the traders, and hackers got paid a part of illegal trading profits. 10 defendants, including 7 traders and 3 hackers, were criminally charged in the New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York, and 5 have pleaded guilty. Related civil charges over 40 defendants were brought by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Charges got filed in the Newark federal court as some of the trades are done in the New Jersey.

» SPAMfighter News - 5/26/2017