Team of Hackers, One Pastor, Break Into Business Wire Services, Obtained $100 million In Scheme

Posted August 12, 2015 7:17 PM ET; Last updated August 14, 2015 3:42 PM ET



[From article]
The Pennsylvania pastor arrested on Tuesday for pocketing profits of $17.5 million using illegal inside information won’t be tending his flock this Sunday — because he’s in jail.
A rare legal smackdown between federal judges resulted late Tuesday night with the freezing of the bail order freeing the pastor, Vitaly Korchevsky, head of the Slavic Evangelical Baptist Church in Brookhaven, Pa.
A Brooklyn federal court judge overturned a Philaelphia magistrate judge’s order that would have freed the pastor on a $100,000 bond.

http://nypost.com/2015/08/13/pastor-saved-souls-by-day-stole-millions-at-night-feds/

Pastor saved souls by day, stole millions at night: feds
By Michelle Celarier

New York Post
August 13, 2015 | 12:25am
* * *

[From article]
An international hacking ring armed with tens of thousands of corporate secrets pocketed more than $100 million from illicit trades, targeting a core vulnerability of the financial system in one of the digital age's most sprawling insider-trading schemes, federal investigators said Tuesday.
Since 2010, more than 30 hackers and traders across the U.S., Ukraine, Russia and other countries coordinated to steal and profit from more than 150,000 press releases, which were scheduled to be delivered to investors from corporate wire services Business Wire, PR Newswire and Marketwired.
[. . .]
Unlike the recent high-profile hacks of health insurers and government agencies, the sophisticated hacks targeted not just people's identities, but corporate intelligence, and some hackers and traders were even aided by former broker-dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
By breaking into the wire services, some of Wall Street's most vital and unnoticed information hubs, investigators said the hackers and traders were able to defraud investors on a massive scale while leaving no public trace, a worrying development for the increasingly intricate networks that keep the financial world online.
[. . .]
“The traders were market-savvy, using equities and options … to maximize their profits.”
The years-long subterfuge highlights the hidden danger of modern finance and the broader Web, in which any one compromised link in the larger chain can quietly endanger the system for years. The hackers, experts said, didn't have to breach many individual companies or vacuum up a large amount of files to succeed. Instead, they hit data-rich clearinghouses knowing exactly what they wanted, ensuring an efficient attack.
[. . .]
Federal agents on Tuesday began arresting suspects Tuesday, with nine facing criminal charges for their role in grabbing $30 million in profits.
Authorities said they have also seized a house boat, an apartment complex, a shopping center and a dozen other properties, as well as more than a dozen brokerage accounts holding $6.5 million.
[. . .]
The ability to see a stock's near-future generated windfalls at warp speed; in one instance, traders made half a million dollars in 36 minutes. In a 2013 scheme, the traders bought more than $8 million in shares of Align Technology after stolen documents showed that the medical-device maker's revenues had recently soared. One day later, when the news went public, the traders cashed out for a profit of more than $1.4 million.
[. . .]
The hackers tapped an armament of brute-force, injection and "spear-phishing" attacks, bulldozing through security systems, implanting malicious code or persuading employees to click on booby-trapped links.
[. . .]
The traders were helped by four co-conspirators in Alpharetta and Suwanee, Georgia; Glenn Mills, Pennsylvania; and Brooklyn, two of whom were formerly broker-dealers registered with the SEC.
[. . .]
In 2013, investigators said, the team explored even newer ways of defrauding trades, including tricking sellers by rapidly buying and cancelling trades, which one called a "special daytrading strategy."
[. . .]
another hacker group, called FIN4, had targeted the computer networks of more than 100 health care, law and pharmaceutical firms, hoping to grab insider intelligence on "impending market catalysts" that could help the group rake in cash from lucrative trades.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/08/11/hackers-who-breached-corporate-wires-made-millions-off-insider-trading/

Hackers who breached corporate wires made millions off insider trading
By Drew Harwell
August 11, 2015 at 12:47 PM

* * *

Vitaly Korchevsky, 50, is escorted in handcuffs from his home in Pennsylvania by agents from the FBI in Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning. He was one of nine people arrested on Tuesday morning.
[video embedded]
[From article]
An international web of hackers and traders made $100million on Wall Street by stealing a look at corporate press releases before they went out and then trading on that information ahead of the pack, federal authorities charged Tuesday.
Authorities said it was the biggest scheme of its kind ever prosecuted, and one that demonstrated yet another way in which the financial world is vulnerable to cybercrime.
The hackers pulled it off by breaking into the computers of some of the biggest business newswire services, which put out earnings announcements and other press releases for a multitude of corporations.
Those releases were by Marketwired of Toronto, PR Newswire in New York and Business Wire of San Francisco.
Nine people in the U.S. and Ukraine were indicted on federal criminal charges, including securities fraud, computer fraud and conspiracy.
[. . .]
Prosecutors said the Ukraine-based hackers were given 'shopping lists' of press releases by the traders.
The hackers then created a 'video tutorial' to help traders see the stolen releases and were paid a portion of the profits from trades based on the information in them, prosecutors said.
Authorities said the scheme involved trades on such companies as Acme Packet Inc, Align Technology Inc, Caterpillar Inc, Dealertrack Technologies Inc, Dendreon Corp, Edwards Lifesciences Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co, Home Depot Inc and Panera Bread Co.
[. . .]
In 2013, for example, the hackers got an early peek at a press release from Panera Bread Company announcing that it was lowering its earnings projections.
The hacking ring bet correctly the stock would fall when the news came out, and turned a profit of about $1million the very next day, according to the indictment.
[. . .]
The most serious charges in the indictment - wire fraud and securities fraud - carry up to 20 years in prison.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3194559/Hackers-100MILLION-Wall-Street-stealing-corporate-press-releases.html

Hackers made $100MILLION on Wall Street by stealing corporate press releases before they were released and then trading on the information
Hackers stole from Marketwired, PR Newswire, and Business Wire
Prosecutors said the Ukraine-based hackers were given 'shopping lists' of press releases by the traders
Hackers then created a 'video tutorial' to help traders see the stolen releases and were paid a portion of the profits from trades
Scheme involved trades on Panera Bread, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot and Acme Packet, among others
Nine people in the US and Ukraine were indicted on federal criminal charges, including securities and computer fraud and conspiracy
By Associated Press
Daily Mail (UK)
Published: 21:33 EST, 11 August 2015 | Updated: 01:45 EST, 12 August 2015

New Web Site Reveals Information Not On Google

http://www.instantcheckmate.com/pr?src=NMX&mdm=DISPLAY&cmp=NMX&cnt=FEEDTEXT&affid=213&campid=589&sid=NMX&s1=FEEDTEXT&s2=&s3=&lp=pr&dkt_nbr=13E39-1&nmx_source=Boston_Herald&nmx_medium=widget&nmx_content=317&nmx_campaign=widgetphase2

New Website Reveals Personal Information Even Google Can't Find
9:06am Friday, June 5, 2015

Information Now Available For Revenge Porn Victims

What kind of help does it provide beyond information? There are many not for profit agencies which provide information for abused persons and victims of crime. But all they provide is information which is easily available. What victims need is relief. Lawyers and prosecutions and being made whole.

Revenge porn helpline launched for victims
A charity has launched a helpline to provide support to the victims of revenge porn attacks. The service is being run by the South West Grid for Learning charity, which aims to offer guidance and help to those who are affected by revenge porn, where explicit images or videos are shared without the subject’s consent. Callers will be provided with information on legal remedies available, their rights and how images can be removed from websites.

Sharyl Attkisson Testifies Before Congress About FOIA Abuses

Lack of accountability is the same with other legal requirements, i.e., duties of public officials. Pattern applies to the extreme abuses of the FBI in Boston when they framed four white men for homicide. Two died in prison. Two were released after 30 years. The US court awarded the families of the four men $101 million. But taxpayers paid the bills. The FBI agents who abused their power, violated oaths and laws, were not penalized, paid no fines, suffered no harm. If maliciously prosecuting civilians is not a problem for the government, who cares about not releasing documents? 

[From article]
Tuesday at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson testified that the federal government has so “perverted” the FOIA process by “ridiculously overused” exemptions and stall tactics they have created a system to intentionally “obfuscate, obstruct and delay” the release of public information.
Attkisson said, “The FOIA process is improperly politicized. Federal agency press flacks and politicians intervene to withhold potentially embarrassing information. FOIA law does not permit this political intervention, but it’s happens all the time. Federal agencies increasingly employ new tactics to obfuscate and delay. They say they don’t understand a FOIA request. They claim it’s too broad. They say a search would be unreasonable.”
She continued, “When they do provide a sensitive document, they redact nearly everything using exemptions such as b(5) deliberative process, which has become so ridiculously overused, it’s earned nicknamed the withhold it because you want to exemption.”
When a court finds a federal agency violated FOIA law, penalties are almost never imposed and if ordered to repay the plaintiffs legal fees the government does so with your tax dollars, meaning there’s no deterrent to stop the bad behavior. In other words they are using our money to prevent us from seeing our own documents,” she added.

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/06/03/attkisson-feds-perverted-foia-to-intentionally-obfuscate-obstruct-and-delay/

ATTKISSON: FEDS ‘PERVERTED’ FOIA TO INTENTIONALLY ‘OBFUSCATE, OBSTRUCT AND DELAY’
by PAM KEY

3 Jun 2015

Cambridge Police Going Door To Door To Provide Information, Love, Kosher For Passover Matzos and Easter Candy. No Wait. They want to see your apartment.

Rindge Towers, Cambridge MA

The named areas are all relatively poor neighborhoods. Why are they chosen? Do the police and the human services industrial complex (MA State Rep. Marie Parente's term), Cambridge division, believe that poor persons are dumb? That they do not know how to find the police? Does this have anything to do with illegal aliens who cannot speak English to explain that the police are their friends? Or that psychiatrists bring love to help them with anxieties and false happiness? Is this over extended and extremely proactive seeking out residents in need of police or human (psychiatric?) services? If the police do not have enough to keep them busy perhaps the City Manger should reduce the budget and size of the department. One personal idea is for the idle officers to address the multi-year criminal abuse of an elder citizen (I know, illegal aliens have priority for Cambridge government services), on property owned and operated by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. For the past 45 years crime families and their associates in police and FBI offices conducted and continue to conduct a brutal campaign of harassment, sleep disturbances, surveillance, telephone and computer tampering. Police might try learning how to stop high tech harassment of civilians by criminal police employees, and federal agents, who use secret technology. But alas police enjoy preying on harmless civilians, knowing to avoid dangerous, violent criminals.


Roosevelt Towers, Cambridge, MA

[From article]
Over the course of five Thursday nights from March to May, members of the Cambridge Police Community Relations and Youth and Family Services units will join personnel from the Department of Human Service Programs and visit residents at Rindge Avenue, Memorial Drive, Putnam Gardens, River Howard Homes, Woodrow Wilson Court, Roosevelt Towers, Walden Square, Jefferson Park, Washington Elms, Newtowne Court, Corcoran Park, and other areas.
“The goal of these outreach efforts is to give residents an opportunity to informally meet with personnel and officers, including our neighborhood sergeants and sector lieutenants, share public safety and human service program-related information and resources with residents, and discuss any questions or concerns residents may have,”

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20150404/NEWS/150408810

Cambridge police participate in door-to-door campaign
Posted Apr. 4, 2015 at 12:45 PM
Cambridge Chronicle

Television Networks Continue to Keep Voters and Taxpayers Un-Informed

[From article]
On Tuesday evening, NBC’s evening newscast acknowledged the name Jonathan Gruber for the first time and his insulting comments regarding ObamaCare a full 32 days after the group American Commitment unearthed the first Gruber video on November 7.
[. . .]
Williams began the 2-minute-and-12-second segment by remarking that “it is unlikely that most Americans have heard the name Jonathan Gruber until a few weeks ago, when a video emerged of him insulting their intelligence.” His statement can be viewed as rather ironic, considering the fact that the viewers of his own program were kept in the dark on the ObamaCare architect, depriving them knowledge of the story until now.
[. . .]
While NBC Nightly News ended its silence on Gruber, the same cannot be said for NBC’s Spanish-language counterpart and fellow NBC Universal network Telemundo. Its evening newscast, Noticiero Telemundo, made no mention of Gruber appearing before Congress on Tuesday. Further, the program has yet to even mention Gruber and any of his unprofessional remarks.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/curtis-houck/2014/12/09/nbc-nightly-news-breaks-silence-jonathan-gruber-32-days-after-first#sthash.ZRYjGW6h.dpuf

NBC Nightly News Breaks Silence on Jonathan Gruber 32 Days After First Video Surfaced
By Curtis Houck
 December 9, 2014 | 10:19 PM EST

Keeping People Un-Informed

[From article]
there is a disturbing pattern of administration officials minimizing the risk to Americans -- an attitude that has become predictable on many fronts.
What makes more sense: Acting in a prudent manner and assuming this virus can infect others via airborne transmission or waiting until we have a full blown nightmare on our hands and have to play catch up? Given all of what we know, I think a child could figure out the answer.
In any case, airborne transmission aside, we are already playing catch up.
[. . .]
According to the CDC: “Ebola is spread through direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes in, for example, the eyes, nose, or mouth) with blood or body fluids (including but not limited to urine, saliva, sweat, feces, vomit, breast milk, and semen) of a person who is sick with Ebola.”
[. . .]
According to the CDC: “Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.”
[. . .]
It is a sobering thing to read as one realizes the virus remains a threat even after it has killed its victim. The threat is so grave that the Independent notes: “Those who treat and bury the bodies of the dead, which are even more contagious than living Ebola patients, are especially at risk for infection.”
A virus that remains lethal long after the patient has died is a pretty disturbing disease to consider.
[. . .]
Consider something as basic as hand-washing. It’s a simple, life-saving standard of care. Yet it is commonly overlooked by doctors, nurses, and other health workers. As a result, they transport pathogens from one hospital room to the next, infecting patients as they go. In many cases, patients die as a result.
Now consider the many stages involved in suiting up before coming in contact with a patient with Ebola and the many steps involved in methodically removing all protective gear, including proper disposal, and you realize the opportunity for error is high.
[. . .]
Fear and panic does not cause Ebola.
[. . .]
And then there was the president telling people in West Africa they can’t catch Ebola sitting next to someone on a bus. Really? The why did the CDC advise Americans travelling to West Africa to "avoid public transportation?"
[. . .]
The virus lives for a long time outside of the body. Depending on the fluid it is living in, it can remain alive, and therefore contagious, for up seven weeks.

http://americanthinker.com/2014/10/ebola_truth_lies_human_error_and_common_sense.html

October 14, 2014
Ebola: Truth, Lies, Human Error, and Common Sense
By Carol Brown

Eight Ways White House Blocks Access To Public Information

[From article]
“Bush was not fantastic,” Sally Buzbee recently told a meeting of journalists. “The [Obama] administration is significantly worse than previous administrations.”
Buzbee detailed eight ways the Obama administration is restricting access to information at a joint meeting of the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the Associated Press Photo Managers. Her comments were highlighted on the AP’s Definitive Source blog.

http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/03/8-ways-obama-administration-restricts-access-information-according-associated-press/

8 Ways the Obama Administration Restricts Access to Information, According to the Associated Press
Kate Scanlon

October 03, 2014

Electronic Transfer of Information Human To Human

[From article]
In the initial test, the greeting was sent from a volunteer in Thiruvananthapuram, India to Strasbourg, France.
There, a computer translated the message and then used electrical stimulation to implant it in the receiver’s mind.
This message appeared as flashes of light in the corner of their vision.
[. . .]
The technology was developed as part of a collaboration between the University of Barcelona in Spain, Axilum Robotics in France, Harvard Medical School and Starlab Barcelona in Spain.
According to the researchers, this is the first time humans have sent a message ‘almost directly’ into each other’s brains.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2737532/Could-soon-send-emails-telepathically-Scientist-transmits-message-mind-colleague-5-000-miles-away-using-brain-waves.html

Could we soon send emails 'telepathically'? Scientist transmits message into the mind of a colleague 5,000 miles away using brain waves
Scientists used EEG headsets to record electrical activity in the brain
Electrical activity from words ‘hola’ and ‘ciao’ were converted into binary
The greeting was sent from Thiruvananthapuram, India to Strasbourg
A computer translated the message and then used electrical stimulation to implant it in the receiver’s mind, appearing as specific flashes of light
According to the researchers, this is the first time humans have sent a message almost directly into each other’s brains
By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 04:31 EST, 29 August 2014 | UPDATED: 05:27 EST, 29 August 2014

Journalists Ignore Bilderberg Conference

[From article]
It is with predictable disappointment to announce all four networks failed to inform the public of a secretive and extremely exclusive meeting of central bankers, CEOs, public officials and world dignitaries taking place this weekend.
From May 29 through today, June 1, esteemed academicians, hand picked journalists, intelligence officials, world banking oligarchs and the CEOs and bosses of Royal Dutch Shell, Google and Microsoft, to name just a few, slinked behind closed doors at the Marriott hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, to do God knows what.
But watching the major news networks and monitoring the domestic news wires, you’d never guess this confab happened.
With the conference now into its fourth and final day, one would expect at least a trickle of articles from the mainstream press regarding Bilderberg 2014, if at the least to perform the routine mock, shame and ridicule of “tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists” claiming participants are working towards a “new world order.”

http://www.infowars.com/in-the-us-4-major-news-networks-zero-bilderberg-2014-coverage/

IN THE US: 4 MAJOR NEWS NETWORKS, ZERO BILDERBERG 2014 COVERAGE
Full-on press blackout testament to dinosaur media's growing irrelevance
by ADAN SALAZAR

INFOWARS

JUNE 1, 2014

Keeping Voters and Taxpayers Uninformed

[This letter was published in the New York Post on Tuesday September 6, 2011
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/letters/mayor_arresting_secret_why_aide_6POaU4XzNIBwDNyUfrx31L


Asking how did high a ranking City official spend "48 hours behind bars without the public being informed?" the Post raises a more troubling question: Are police keeping public information from the public? In many cities police regularly censor information even when it threatens the public safety. A conspiracy of journalists, police and politicians cannot have a good outcome. If they protect each other from scrutiny what is the end of the consolidation of power?

[From article]
"How is it that the functional No. 2 figure in City Hall -- responsible for overseeing the Police Department, among other agencies -- spent 48 hours behind bars without the public being informed?
[. . .]
New Yorkers have a right to know when the second-most powerful man in city government is sitting in a DC jail cell."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/mayor_mike_snow_job_H7HbcpS9NjGzZDCvqZkPrL

Mayor Mike’s snow job
New York Post
Last Updated: 11:27 PM, September 1, 2011
Posted: 10:16 PM, September 1, 2011

Information Essential to Freedom

[From article]
as late as 2005, Thomas Friedman, the cheerleader-in-chief of liberation technology, wrote that “totalitarian systems depend on a monopoly of information and force, and too much information started to slip through the Iron Curtain, thanks to the spread of fax machines, telephones, and other modern tools of communication.”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/hope_springs_ternal_961fPSrH2iewVDNYApkpGO

Hope springs e-ternal
Overestimating the Democratic power of the Internet
By EVGENY MOROZOV
New York Post
Last Updated: 4:18 AM, January 2, 2011
Posted: 11:21 PM, January 1, 2011