SEC Freezes Hacker's Assets

Federal oversight related to hacking recently made headlines when a federal court in New Jersey granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) motion to freeze assets connected to a hedge fund manager accused of hacking unpublished news releases pertaining to publicly traded companies.

The scheme involved David Amaryan, of Russian descent, who allegedly hacked into various newswire services to obtain press releases prior to their being made public. The releases mentioned a variety of public companies, including Caterpillar, Inc., and Panera Bread Co. Amaryan, and companies associated with him, then allegedly traded publicly in the very same companies named in the hacked press releases.