To be honest anybody in the legal industry who wasn’t already aware of this must have been living under a rock as this has been common knowledge for a number of years for firms operating in the region.
We’d suggest that it goes a little deeper than a few “citizens”.
Law.com write
FIRM HACKS CONFIRMED – Memo to anyone who may have doubted that the cyber threat against law firms is real: U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York announced Tuesday that three Chinese nationals have been charged with infiltrating the servers of two law firms in 2014 and 2015 and stealing information about pending deals that was then used in trades that reaped roughly $4 million in illegal profits. The indictment unsealed Tuesday does not name the law firms, but says one advised Intel Corp. on its 2015 acquisition of Altera Corp. and represented a company that was in deal talks with InterMune Inc. The other advised Pitney Bowes Inc. in the 2015 acquisition of e-commerce company Borderfree, the indictment states. READ MORE HERE
Reuters are also running with the story
U.S. accuses Chinese citizens of hacking law firms, insider trading
Three Chinese citizens have been criminally charged in the United States with trading on confidential corporate information obtained by hacking into networks and servers of law firms working on mergers, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Iat Hong of Macau, Bo Zheng of Changsha, China, and Chin Hung of Macau were charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court with conspiracy, insider trading, wire fraud and computer intrusion.
Prosecutors said the men made more than $4 million by placing trades in at least five company stocks based on inside information from unnamed law firms, including about deals involving Intel Corp and Pitney Bowes Inc.
Full report at
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-insidertrading-idUSKBN14G1D5
and at CNN
Feds bust Chinese hackers for trading on stolen law firm secrets
and Bloomberg
Chinese Hackers Charged With Trading on Stolen Law Firm Data
Reported also: Australian Financial Review
