Ukrainian hacker admits plotting to use stolen news releases

Vadym Iermolovych entered the plea in Newark, New Jersey, to a complaint charging him with aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit wire and computer hacking.

The U.S. attorney's office said that from 2010 to 2015, the group gained access to more than 150,000 press releases that were about to be issued by Marketwired; PR Newswire in New York; and Business Wire of San Francisco.

The group was able to get inside the news services' computer systems by phishing, a well-known practice in which hackers send an email with a seemingly innocuous link that, if clicked on, can eventually lead to the divulging of the user's login and password information.