Alexander Garkusha benefitted from the scheme, which targeted PR Newswire, Marketwire and Business Wire, but then cooperated with authorities as they built their case against other traders and the hackers who helped them.

Traders made transactions before at least 157 earnings releases from May to October 2016, generating at least $4.1 million in illegal profits.

It's the second time a former employee has been charged with selling off stock prior the public announcement of the company's massive data breach.

The SEC said Yahoo didn't properly investigate or consider whether to inform investors of its 2014 breach, which didn't become public until two years later.

Corporations need to do more to protect investors from the financial damages of data beaches, an SEC commissioner says.

Jun Ying allegedly concluded that Equifax had been breached and sold all of his stocks weeks before the company went public with the information.