Accused hackers make millions off insider trading info
The US district attorney charged three Chinese citizens for hacking two law firms and making more than $4 million from the information they allegedly stole.
The three men, identified as Iat Hong, Bo Zheng and Chin Hung, are accused of targeting law firms that specialized in mergers and acquisitions and hacking their email servers to siphon off insider trading scoops. The three had targeted seven law firms in New York, and successfully breached two unnamed firms, Preet Bharara, the US district attorney for New York, said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world: You are and will be targets of cyber hacking, because you have information valuable to would-be criminals," Bharara said in the statement. The hackers were able to buy shares for cheap before anyone else knew how much they would shoot up in value from the acquisition, investigators said. Hong, Zheng and Hung looked to hack the lawyers who were helping these deals go through, according to the district attorney's office.
