A hacker has reportedly made millions of dollars by breaking into valuable Office 365 accounts and using the information found therein on the stock market.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey recently charged a British citizen, Robert B. Westbrook, with one count of securities fraud and wire fraud, and five counts of computer fraud.
Westbrook now faces years in prison and millions of dollars in possible fines.
Years in prison
The five cases of computer fraud involve the hacking into five Office 365 email accounts of high-ranking executives working at publicly traded companies.
Securities fraud and bank fraud involve using the information in those accounts to trade on the stock market. Westbrook would reportedly hack into these email accounts and look for unpublished quarterly financial reports. Once found, he read through them to see if the company was performing well or poorly, and used the knowledge to determine whether the stock would rise or fall in value – classic insider trading.
Apparently, Westbrook did this between 2019 and 2020 and managed to earn around $3.75 million.
“The SEC is continuously working to protect markets and investors from the consequences of cyber fraud,” Jorge G. Tenreiro, acting head of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said in a statement.
“As this case demonstrates, even though Westbrook has taken multiple steps to conceal his identity – including the use of anonymous email accounts, VPN services and the use of bitcoin – uncovering fraud, even in cases involving sophisticated international hacking.”
For his alleged misdeeds, Westbrook now faces 20 years in prison and $5 million in securities fraud fines. He also faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, or $250,000 or twice the gain or loss from the offense (whichever is greater), for bank fraud. Finally, any email account hack carries a five-year prison sentence or a $250,000 fine.
As of this writing, there is no information on how Westbrook pleaded.
Via Ars Technica