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It was disclosed on Tuesday that an international web of hackers and traders made $100million on Wall Street by stealing a look at corporate press releases before they went out and then trading on that information ahead of the pack.
US authorities said it was the biggest scheme of its kind ever prosecuted, and one that demonstrated yet another way in which the financial world is vulnerable to cybercrime.
The hackers reportedly broke into the computers of some of the biggest business newswire services, which put out earnings announcements and other press releases for a multitude of corporations.
Those releases were by Marketwired of Toronto, PR Newswire in New York and Business Wire of San Francisco.
The Securities and Exchange Commission also brought civil charges against the nine plus 23 other people and companies in the U.S. and Europe.
Authorities said the scheme involved trades on such companies as Acme Packet Inc, Align Technology Inc, Caterpillar Inc, Dealertrack Technologies Inc, Dendreon Corp, Edwards Lifesciences Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Home Depot Inc and Panera Bread Co.