Future trend.   His only mistake, was being too greedy so as to attract attention.

The NY Times has an interesting story today that’s indicative of an emerging hacking-for-profit trend that just might allow the perpetrator to keep his ill-gotten gains. In this case, the crime doesn’t involve hacking databases to steal credit and debit card numbers, but hacking a computer to obtain inside information in order to profit on the stock market.

The case involves a Ukrainian engineering consultant named Oleksandr Dorozhko who is alleged to have hacked into a computer belonging to IMS Health, a company that provides market research to the pharmaceutical and health care industries.

Through the computer breach, Dorozhko apparently obtained advance information about a negative earnings announcement that IMS was to make a few hours later on October 17, 2007. He quickly purchased 630 put options for IMS Health, betting that the price of IMS shares, which were then trading at $30 each, would drop within three days. Dorozhko invested about $42,000 in the options, an amount that nearly equals his annual income, estimated to be between $45,000 and $50,000.

Hours later, IMS Health announced that its earnings had dropped 15 percent from the previous year and 28 percent below analysts’ estimates, causing its stock price to fall to $21.20 the next day. Dorozhko’s prescient purchases landed him a tidy profit of $286,457 in one day — nearly six times his annual income. (Wired)

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