NEW YORK, MILLAT+(APP/AFP) – US prosecutors announced criminal
charges Tuesday against three hackers who allegedly made $4 million in illicit profits from insider trading of information pilfered from law firms advising on corporate mergers.
The three defendants, two from Macau and one from China, successfully
breached the computer networks of international law firms with New York offices by unlawfully obtaining a firm employee’s credentials and installing malware on his company’s server, the US Attorney’s office in New York said.
The malware permitted the hackers to monitor law firm communications
about more than a dozen transactions in 2014 and 2015 that were discussed or
contemplated, including some deals that were never consummated.
The hackers then bought shares of companies that would later be
acquired, winning big profits.
The hackers allegedly made $380,000 on trades of Intermune, a drug
maker bought by Germany’s Roche in 2014; $1.4 million in trades on Altera, bought by Intel in 2015; and $841,000 on Borderfree, acquired by Pitney Bowes in 2015.