The admission comes in the wake of series of media reports that hackers have repeatedly made their way into the computer network that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year.
Nasdaq said the files were detected late last year, and it immediately contacted forensic groups and US law enforcement agencies.
The attack came in the form of suspicious files known as ‘malware’, pointed at Nasdaq’s Directors Desk service, a web-based application where some 5,000 companies store documents for board members.
The files were deleted and Nasdaq says there is ‘no evidence’ that information on Directors Desk was accessed by hackers.
Directors Desk’s systems are not connecting to the trading systems, Nasdaq said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the attacks alongside the US Department of Justice, but officials have remained silent and no one is authorized to release a statement at this time.
