Dive Brief:

• U.S. authorities have said an alliance of stock traders and hackers made as much as $100 million after stealing confidential corporate press releases.

• Nine people were indicted by grand juries on charges that they made illegal profits off a scheme that started around February 2010.

• Five of the nine charged were arrested on Tuesday, prosecutors said, and international arrest warrants were issued for the remaining four.

Dive Insight:

The case marks the first time U.S. prosecutors have brought criminal charges for a securities fraud scheme involving hacked insider information.

Prosecutors said that hackers based in Ukraine infiltrated the database of press release distributors Business Wire, Marketwired and PR Newswire, obtaining sensitive corporate information such as financial results before they became public.

"This is the story of a traditional securities fraud scheme with a twist — one that employed a contemporary approach to a conventional crime," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez.

The SEC said the network included traders in New York, Cyprus, France, Malta and Russia.

"This case illustrates how cyber criminals and those who commit securities fraud are evolving and becoming more sophisticated," said Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey.