[ISN] Coke Hacked And Doesn¢t Tell

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-04/coke-hacked-and-doesn-t-tell.html

By Ben Elgin, Dune Lawrence and Michael Riley
Bloomberg.com
Nov 4, 2012

FBI officials quietly approached executives at Coca-Cola Co. (KO) on 
March 15, 2009, with some startling news.

Hackers had broken into the company¢s computer systems and were 
pilfering sensitive files about its attempted $2.4 billion acquisition 
of China Huiyuan Juice Group (1886), according to three people familiar 
with the situation and an internal company document detailing the cyber 
intrusion. The Huiyuan deal, which collapsed three days later, would 
have been the largest foreign takeover of a Chinese company at the time.

Coca-Cola, the world¢s largest soft-drink maker, has never publicly 
disclosed the loss of the Huiyuan information, despite its potential 
effect on the deal. It is just one in a global barrage of corporate 
computer attacks kept secret from shareholders, regulators, employees -- 
and in some cases even from senior executives.

When hackers last year waged a large-scale attack on BG Group Plc (BG/), 
raiding troves of sensitive data, the British energy company never made 
it public. Luxembourg-based steel maker ArcelorMittal also kept mum when 
intruders targeted, among others, its executive overseeing China. As did 
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), after cyber attackers made off with files 
from its investment banking firm about natural gas leases that were up 
for sale.

Each of these cases was detailed to Bloomberg News either by people 
involved in remediating the situation or executives briefed on the 
details, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn¢t 
public; or in computer logs compiled by researchers monitoring the 
activities of hackers in China.

[...]


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