Warren Buffet’s Business Wire Sees Ongoing Persistent Cyberattack

Popular press release website Business Wire, owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathway, has been the target of a persistent DDoS-led cyberattack for over a week.

The company, according to a spokesman quoted by Reuters, has been suffering a continuous distributed denial-of-service attack since January 31. Described as a directed and persistent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, the company says hackers are attempting to slow down or make the website inaccessible. However, Business Wire’s posture to disseminate content hasn’t been impacted, the company added.

As reported by Bloomberg, Business Wire spokesperson Neil Hershberg said:

There’s no evidence of any information being compromised. It’s really an issue of slowness.

The website said it has hired experts to help resolve the ongoing problem while working with clients to ensure their new press releases are processed.

First reported by the Wall Street Journal, the attacks have led at least one New York-based communications firm to send a news release of a client to a rival service due to the attack.

“The website is experiencing slowness, but it’s going through. It’s just there’s extreme slowness at times,” said Michael Becker, an executive vice president at Business Wire, in an interview with the publication. ”We’re not aware of anybody else experiencing it.”

Meanwhile, the attack isn’t the first time Business Wire has been targeted by malicious hackers. In 2015, US authorities arrested a number of individuals accused of infiltrating the firm’s computer systems to gather sensitive corporate information before making millions of dollars by having knowledge of confidential data.  Subsequently, a securities trader pleaded guilty to the crime of securities fraud and widespread hacking that targeted Business Wire and other competitors.

Featured image from Shutterstock.