Hacker pleads guilty in US over press release insider scheme

Guilty plea: A Ukrainian computer hacker pleaded guilty on Jan 20 to using more than 13,000 computers to steal log-in and credit card data, US federal prosecutors said.

A Ukrainian man has become the first computer hacker to plead guilty in what US authorities called a worldwide scheme to hack into services that distribute corporate news releases, and use stolen information to conduct insider trading. 

Vadym Iermolovych, 28, of Kievm, on May 16 joined three traders in admitting criminal wrongdoing over the largest known hacking scheme designed to game financial markets, resulting in more than US$100mil (RM401.69mil) of alleged illegal profit.