Dow Jones security breach more than “lower grade intrusion”: Bloomberg

Russian hackers breached security at Dow Jones & Co and gained access to information to trade on before it was made public, Bloomberg reported citing sources.

The breach was "far more serious than a lower-grade intrusion" disclosed by the company, Bloomberg added.

According to Bloomberg, the FBI, Secret Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission were leading an investigation, which got underway at least  a year ago.

"Since Bloomberg published its article, we have worked hard to establish whether the allegations it contains are correct. To date, we have been unable to find evidence of any such investigation", Dow Jones spokeswoman Colleen Schwartz said in an email.

Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and a unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, last revealed a security breach that put payment card and contact information of about 3,500 individuals at risk.

According to Dow Jones, there was unauthorised access to its systems at certain times between August 2012 and July 2015.

"We are aware of the Dow Jones intrusion and looking into it," FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser said via email.

According to Ken Westin, a senior security analyst for Tripwire, a Portland, Oregon-based security company, this type of targeted white collar hacking was on the rise, USA Today reported.

"The goal of these intrusions is to target information that is valuable to traders or competitors. These kinds of intrusions can be pre-meditated - hackers are paid in advance by traders in order to gain access to certain types of data. They can also be opportunistic and the hacker(s) sell the data to traders or competitors after the fact. Embargoed data can have tremendous value in the right hands," he said.