Hackers steal company data to influence stock prices

Cyber ​​criminals would steal trade secrets to manipulate stock prices. That’s what FireEye security experts claim. A hacker group is said to have targeted more than a hundred companies with this objective since 2013.

FireEye has named the hacker group FIN4. The group is said to have targeted more than 100 targets that were allegedly deliberately chosen since 2013. According to FireEye, this mainly concerns attacks on email accounts of people who may have confidential or important information. The security firm suggests that the hackers have only one goal: to influence stock prices. Most of the victims are said to be active in the United States, but their identities have not been released.

A majority of the affected companies are in the healthcare or pharmaceutical industry, according to FireEye. Information about certain trade secrets, such as the results of investigations, could significantly affect the stock price. However, it is unclear to what extent FIN4 actually influenced the price movements of the companies concerned.

FireEye provides little further information about the hacker group. That would also not be available, because the hackers work via Tor. According to Reuters, the criminals probably come from the United States, but Western Europe is also not excluded. That claim is made based on the language the hackers use in their emails.