Insider trading long has been something the SEC tried to prohibit. Over the years, there were a number of high profile cases where people were convicted of insider trading. This often entailed some lengthy jail sentences, albeit at white collar prisons, in addition to heafty fines.
The tactics of those commiting insider trading changed. With the increase in technology, those seeking to gain an unfair advantage devised different approaches.
Today, those who are providing the information are often not even aware they are doing that.
Many of those who attain the information that is used to gain said advantage is done by hackers. Either via a direct hack or by using the ignorance of some unknowing employee, these individuals are highly technical and capable of amassing whatever information they need.
One of the favorite approaches is to try to get corporate press releases and other market moving information before they are actually released.
Newswires are the ones entrusted with this information. For these hackers, this is a treasure trove that contains a very valuable commodity. Using techniques such as phishing software, they were able to hack many of the wire services. This resulted in the thieves selling the information to the tune of $100 million.
Obviously, the gains from this information is much higher.
And this is only one network of hackers.
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