I think that this case shows that you don’t have to steal money to make a buck. Bloomberg is reporting on a group of hackers from the Ukraine who had a very novel way to make money:
In morning raids in Georgia and Pennsylvania, federal agents arrested five traders in the plot, while four others indicted on hacking and securities fraud charges are at large.
The suspected hackers, who are thought to be in Ukraine, allegedly infiltrated the computer servers of PRNewswire Association LLC, Marketwired and Business Wire, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., over a five-year period.
They siphoned more than 150,000 press releases including corporate data on earnings that could be used to anticipate stock market moves and make profitable trades, the U.S. said. The hackers passed the information to associates in America and Ukraine, who allegedly used it to buy and sell shares of dozens of companies, including Panera Bread Co., Boeing Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Oracle Corp., through retail brokerage accounts.
I have to admit that this is way more inventive than stealing identities or credit cards to make money. And you’re likely to make way more money doing this. It also continues to show how unprepared companies are to defend themselves against cybercrime and how they really need to step up their game in that regard.
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Hackers Break Into Press Release Firms To Profit On Unannounced News
I think that this case shows that you don’t have to steal money to make a buck. Bloomberg is reporting on a group of hackers from the Ukraine who had a very novel way to make money:
In morning raids in Georgia and Pennsylvania, federal agents arrested five traders in the plot, while four others indicted on hacking and securities fraud charges are at large.
The suspected hackers, who are thought to be in Ukraine, allegedly infiltrated the computer servers of PRNewswire Association LLC, Marketwired and Business Wire, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., over a five-year period.
They siphoned more than 150,000 press releases including corporate data on earnings that could be used to anticipate stock market moves and make profitable trades, the U.S. said. The hackers passed the information to associates in America and Ukraine, who allegedly used it to buy and sell shares of dozens of companies, including Panera Bread Co., Boeing Co., Hewlett-Packard Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Oracle Corp., through retail brokerage accounts.
I have to admit that this is way more inventive than stealing identities or credit cards to make money. And you’re likely to make way more money doing this. It also continues to show how unprepared companies are to defend themselves against cybercrime and how they really need to step up their game in that regard.
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This entry was posted on August 12, 2015 at 8:15 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.