The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition Toronto-headquartered business news wire Marketwired LP says it upgraded its cybersecurity system two years ago to beat back hackers. The Globe's Jeff Gray writes the company's comments came after confidential unreleased press releases about big U.S. companies ended up in the hands of an illegal insider-trading ring that made $100-million (U.S.). The scheme, unveiled by officials with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice on Tuesday, centred on five hackers in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. Authorities say the five broke into the computers of Marketwired, Business Wire and PR Newswire Association and stole 150,000 press releases over five years. Hundreds of U.S. company press releases were targeted. In all, nine people were charged. Marketwired, controlled by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, says once the company was alerted by law enforcement about the breach, it beefed up its cybersecurity in 2013, successfully blocking the hackers' access to the data. "The issue was found and fixed," spokesman Jason Maloni told The Globe, adding that Marketwired brought in cybersecurity firm Mandiant to plug the holes.