Today’s reported incident involved the newsgathering operations of the Wall Street journal and could have pertained to non-public embargoed information withheld from the public until an agreed upon release date. Dow Jones said it is looking into whether there is “any truth whatsoever” to the report, noting that it originated from a “competitor news organization”.
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The hackers were seeking sensitive information that included stories being prepared for publication, Bloomberg reported.
In a letter sent to customers, the financial information company said there is no evidence that data was stolen but that the hackers may also have accessed credit card information of fewer than 3,500 individuals.
An Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson told NBC News the agency was aware of the Bloomberg report and was looking into it. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined comment. Dow Jones publishes the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s as well as providing information through a number of services including the widely read Dow Jones Newswires.
Colleen Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Dow Jones, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dow Jones has firmly denied claims that its serves were penetrated by hackers from Russian Federation harvesting information for insider dealing. The company has said it had no information that customer information was stolen and that it is working with law enforcement and a leading cybersecurity firm.
Those hackers broke into the servers of PRNewswire Association LLC, Marketwired and Business Wire, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., over a five-year period, according to prosecutors.
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Bloomberg said the current hack is considered far more serious.
