Further Comments on the DOJ's Continuing Attack on Cybercriminal Activity

摘要

In prior issues of SRLJ,(1) we discussed the U.S Department of Justice ("DOJ") attacks against persons alleged to have used "hacking" to acquire material non-public information which has been used to commit securities fraud by trading while in possession of such information, and/or in connection with "pump and dump" schemes. In this article we discuss a third use of "hacked" information, which is for the purpose of extortion.(2) It appears that the DOJ has been increasing the number of "hacking" cases that it is bringing, and that many of such cases involve "hackers" that are foreign nationals and who are located overseas.(3)