A hacking group has been stealing identity information and reading emails to get the inside edge on stock markets to buy and sell to make quick profits. Vendor FireEye reckons the group sent articulate phishing emails with malicious attachments demonstrating "deep" knowledge of financial markets and corporate communications.

In one instance the attackers targeted five organisations involved in a then non-public merger, months before the deal was announced. In another, it used information gleaned from a hacked consultancy to better target that firm's clients. Malware researchers said the FIN4 group targeted a lot of firms.