Further Reading Hackers hit PR Newswire, data shows up alongside recently stolen Adobe code

Federal authorities in New Jersey and New York unsealed charges against nine people accused of running an international hacking ring designed to steal unreleased press releases and execute profitable stock trades based on that insider information. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, computer fraud, money laundering, and more.

According to a Tuesday press release, prosecutors claim the trades “allegedly generated approximately $30 million in illegal profits,” calling the operation the “largest known computer hacking and securities fraud scheme.”

Five of the suspects were arrested at their homes in Georgia and are scheduled to appear before a federal judge on Tuesday. A sixth man was arrested in Pennsylvania, while the remaining three are still in Ukraine, but international arrest warrants have been issued.

Starting in February 2010 until November 2013, the group is alleged to have used an SQL injection attack against Marketwired. In 2012, some of the men also brute-force attacked login credentials for Business Wire and then sold access to that data.

In particular, in 2011, the hacking ring purchased $5.9 million dollars' worth of shares of the industrial giant Caterpillar after having taken its pre-release earnings. Once those figures were released, the operation sold those shares for a profit of $648,000. The group executed similar hacks against Acme Packet, Verisign, and others.

If found guilty, the defendants could find themselves behind bars for decades.

"The defendants were a well-organized group that allegedly robbed the newswire companies and their clients and cheated the securities markets and the investing public by engaging in an unprecedented hacking and trading scheme,” New Jersey-based United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement. "The defendants launched a series of sophisticated and relentless cyber attacks against three major newswire companies, stole highly confidential information, and used [it] to enrich themselves at the expense of public companies and their shareholders."