14 DAY TRIAL // The US Air Force has started an investigation after an article that contained details about a still-secret military project was published in the press.
The investigation, as Reuters reports, was started after Forbes reporter and Chief Operating Officer of the Lexington Institute think tank Loren Thompson published his "Boeing Protests Bomber Award To Northrop Grumman, Claims Selection Process 'Fundamentally Flawed'" article.
The Forbes article, besides offering technical details relating to the project, also said that both Boeing and Lockheed Martin would file a formal complaint against the US Air Force after they awarded a new development contract for a new long-range strike bomber to Northrop Grumman.
According to their complaint, the two companies are saying that the Northrop Grumman winning bid to build the bomber was of $21.4 billion, more than double their own.
According to US investigators, the news piece contained a huge amount of information that had no way of reaching the public unless one of the involved parties decided to break the silence, or one of its servers was compromised in a cyber-attack.
While it is highly unlikely that the information from the Forbes article was obtained via a cyber-attack, this only comes to confirm recent reports and market studies from cyber-security vendors, who are saying that most disclosures occur because of insider threats and partner companies more than anything else.