21ST CENTURY CRIME: Chinese traders charged with insider trading on hacked information.

The suspects in the alleged criminal marriage of cyber-hacking and securities fraud targeted at least seven law firms and other entities that handle the sensitive and often lucrative legal work of advising companies pursuing mergers and acquisitions, according to a 13-count superseding indictment unsealed in New York.

Operating from April 2014 through late 2015, the alleged scheme ultimately gained access to secret information from two law firms about pending corporate deals, prosecutors charged.

The suspects allegedly prized, targeted and gained access to the emails of attorneys directly involved in the deals. Prosecutors charged they exchanged a list of partners who performed such work at one of the firms before hacking into that firm’s computer system.

Using that information, the suspects allegedly bought stocks in the companies involved in the deals, and ultimately sold the investments at a profit when the mergers or acquisitions were announced.

Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a formal statement said the allegations spotlight the vulnerability of highly-sensitive law firm records to the efforts of determined cyber criminals.

You might at least hope that high-powered law firms would have better security and smarter users that our government does.