Ivan Boesky, known for his role in insider trading scandals in the 1980s, used to steal and profit from press releases uploaded by PR Newswire and Marketwire before they became public. In one instance, he made 40-50% of profits from trades using insider information from a Dendreon press release.
Hacks often boil down to information theft and can have various motives and targets. US authorities were able to take down a hacking operation through stolen press releases and online chat logs.
Vladimir Levin was one of the most notorious hackers of all time. After a successful hack, he spent 30 months in UK jails and was later extradited to the US to serve less than a year in prison.
Ivaldis Avalduz laundered $23 million from Google and $98 million from Facebook using bank accounts he set up in Latvia and Cyprus. He moved the money to accounts in banks around the world and made it look like normal business dealings with fake legal documents until he was caught.
The FBI, foreign law enforcement and private sector partners worked together to seize computer servers around the world that had been the backbone of both Game Over Zeus and CryptoLocker, which were designed to steal banking credentials and extort computer users by holding their files for ransom.
David Sanger discusses how the change in Paul Whelan's designation and rapidly escalating tensions between the US and Russia put him in grave danger as they negotiated his release from Russian custody.