Reuters accused of hack attack

Reuters has been accused of hacking by Swedish software company Intentia, which claims its computer systems were breached and its third quarter results were lifted before the scheduled release.

Intentia launched an internal investigation into the matter after Reuters allegedly reported on their results before they were officially released.

The company claims to have found evidence of "unauthorised entry" into its computer systems. This entry occurred six minutes before Reuters released a bulletin based on the Q3 profit report, according to a statement made by the company.

Intentia said in the statement: "The entry took place at 12:51pm on 24 October 2002, prior to the publication of the interim report for the third quarter of 2002. At approximately 12:57pm, Reuters published the first news flash giving information on Intentia's third quarter result, without prior confirmation from the Company. Intentia issued its earnings report ahead of schedule at 1:22pm that same day."

Intentia claims to have traced this unauthorised access back to an IP address belonging to the Reuters news agency.

The CEO of Intentia, Björn Algkvist, said "We question the methods used by Reuters, and our judgement is that we cannot rule out the possibility of illegal actions. As a consequence we will file criminal charges regarding the incident."

Patrick Gray writes for ZD Net Australia