from the investing-is-easier-when-you-know-the-future dept.
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
At a Kiev nightclub in the spring of 2012, 24-year-old Ivan Turchynov made a fateful drunken boast to some fellow hackers. For years, Turchynov said, he'd been hacking unpublished press releases from business newswires and selling them, via Moscow-based middlemen, to stock traders for a cut of the sizable profits.
[...] Newswires like Business Wire are clearinghouses for corporate information, holding press releases, regulatory announcements, and other market-moving information under strict embargo before sending it out to the world. Over a period of at least five years, three US newswires were hacked using a variety of methods from SQL injections and phishing emails to data-stealing malware and illicitly acquired login credentials. Traders who were active on US stock exchanges drew up shopping lists of company press releases and told the hackers when to expect them to hit the newswires. The hackers would then upload the stolen press releases to foreign servers for the traders to access in exchange for 40 percent of their profits, paid to various offshore bank accounts. Through interviews with sources involved with both the scheme and the investigation, chat logs, and court documents, The Verge has traced the evolution of what law enforcement would later call one of the largest securities fraud cases in US history.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Monday August 27 2018, @07:24AM (5 children)
So the business newswires didn't have those press releases afterwards?
Note that I'm not saying what those people did was right. They obtained unauthorized access to computer systems, did corporate espionage, and were involved with insider trading. But it was not stealing.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday August 27 2018, @12:11PM (1 child)
Be careful; I have found that there is an alarmingly sizable contingent of monomaniacs on this site whose one issue is "If something is wrong, you must call it stealing--only saying 'stealing' conveys that something is wrong".
No matter how many laws against, for example, copyright infringement, seem to be able to shake them of this laughable notion.
I salute your commitment to reality and truth. These guys are like our very own flat earth contingent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday August 27 2018, @12:17PM
Where are you even getting this notion from? This site is full of people who know that "copyright infringement != theft" and that "piracy == swashbucklers plundering a ship". Maybe you overdosed on AC comments?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 27 2018, @06:15PM (2 children)
But it was not stealing.
In this narrow case I think you could argue it was stealing.
Consider:
The press release contains a secret.
Hackers tell everyone about the secret.
The business actually has been deprived of that secret because it's not a secret anymore.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Monday August 27 2018, @07:41PM
But if the lost thing was the secrecy, then it is not stealing, as when it stopped being a secret, it also wasn't a secret for the hackers. Therefore they didn't steal the secrecy, they destroyed it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Tuesday August 28 2018, @01:03AM
They stole money from the other traders by having the insider information. If it were gambling they peaked at the cards before betting, which steals from everyone at the table. (but I take the semantics point)
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Monday August 27 2018, @10:07AM (1 child)
They steal elections, they steal stock info, they let you pee on them...
...what's next? Kalishnikovs that transform into electric cars?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday August 27 2018, @04:36PM
I think it's калашников (≅ Kalashnikov), not калишников (≅ Kalishnikov), my good comrade.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @11:59AM (1 child)
Why would any company send out a financially-sensitive press release in advance? Shouldn't these be sent out (and/or posted on the company website) at the correct time for immediate distribution, like any other press release?
<sarcasm>Besides, if you send these out in advance, how will your own inside traders get an edge on the market?</sarcasm>
"To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly."
Samuel Johnson
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Monday August 27 2018, @09:48PM
This is normally done in advance to allow all publications to post the news at the same time. It also gives the media company time to write an article, editorial or analysis on the press release. It's actually amazingly commonplace. They aren't sent out a long time in advance, but having access to these documents even a few hours in advance might be enough to short/hedge a share and make a quick buck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @01:20PM (1 child)
Not even close. The 2008 AIG real estate mortgage insurance scam, abetted by Bill Clinton (repealed Glass Steigall) and aided by George W. Bush, (had an AIG exec on his cabinet) certainly takes the cake on that one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @01:48PM
Do we know the full depth of this fraud case yet? The fine article mentions "traders" (plural) that took advantage of the advance information, have all of them been tracked down...and charged?