U.S. statistics agency says ‘no evidence’ of hack on CPI report

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday that it found no evidence its systems were compromised or that there was any suspicious activity around the release of the U.S. consumer price index earlier this week.

A rally in Treasuries futures seconds before the better-than-expected inflation data hit the Labor Department agency’s website on Tuesday had led to concerns about a potential leak or hack of the closely watched data.

“There is no evidence that our IT systems were in any way compromised,” said Karen Ransom, division chief of the division of publishing services at BLS.

“And we do continuously monitor for suspicious activity and have detected none.”

Over a 60-second span before the November CPI data went out, more than 13,000 March 10-year Treasuries futures traded hands – during a period when activity is usually nonexistent.

Stocks and bonds rose further immediately after publication, as investors speculated that cooling inflation meant the Federal Reserve would pause its tightening cycle early next year.

When asked if there was anything that went differently about this CPI release compared to the prior month’s report – either in the process leading up to its publication or in its actual publication – Ransom said “no.”

“All of our normal procedures were followed,” Ransom said.