Ukrainian hacker gets 2 years in press release hacking scheme

A Ukrainian hacker has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for his role in an international scheme that involved hacking unpublished news releases to net roughly $30 million in illegal profits.

Vadym Iermolovych of Kiev was sentenced to 30 months in prison in New Jersey federal court and ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution, the Justice Department announced Monday.

The scheme involved hacking into three business newswires, stealing not-yet-published press releases by public companies that contained financial information and using that information to make trades generating roughly $30 million in illegal profits.

{mosads}Iermolovych, 29, had previously pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer hacking and aggravated identity theft.

Several other individuals — including computer hackers in Ukraine and securities traders based in the United States — have been charged in connection with the scheme.

The newswires targeted in the scheme were Marketwired, PR Newswire and Business Wire. The hackers gained nonpublic information about hundreds of companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot and Panera Bread, according to the Justice Department.

Authorities say that the hackers obtained unauthorized access to computer networks of the newswires using phishing and SQL injection attacks. They stole the press releases that contained forthcoming announcements about earnings, revenues and other confidential information about public companies.

The information was then shared with traders, and the hackers were paid a portion of the illegal trading profits. 

The scheme is said to have taken place between 2010 and 2015.