Intentia claims financial results leaked following unauthorised entry into IT systems via Reuters IP address

Nordic Business Report, Oct 28, 2002

NORDIC BUSINESS REPORT-28 October 2002-Intentia claims financial results leaked following unauthorised entry into IT systems via Reuters IP address (C)1994-2002 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Swedish collaboration solutions supplier Intentia International AB issued a press release on Saturday (26 October) saying that its third quarter result had leaked out prior to its scheduled publication on October 24 after an unauthorised entry into its IT systems through an IP-address belonging to the news agency Reuters.

"The investigation has shown that there was an unauthorised entry via an IP-address belonging to Reuters. The entry took place at 1251 on October 24th 2002, prior to the publication of the interim report for the third quarter of 2002. At approximately 1257, Reuters published the first news flash giving information on Intentia's third quarter result, without prior confirmation from the company," Intentia said.

According to Bjorn Algkvist, CEO of Intentia International, the incident had severely damaged confidence in the company.

"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," Algkvist said.

"We will disclose to the Stockholm Stock Exchange all technical details on how the intrusion was made, which will allow them to share this information with other listed companies, so that actions preventing similar events in the future can be made," Algkvist added.

Reuters issued a reply to Intentia's press release on Sunday (27 October) denying Intentia's allegations.

Jonathan Lynn, managing editor at Reuters Nordic, said that he was surprised at Intentia's allegations and that he had not been contacted by either the police or the public prosecutor.

"We published information about Intentia's result after it had become available over the Internet," Lynn said.

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