An American company based in Washington claims that IBM is involved in a 2005 attack on its e-mail server. In this context, the Butera & Andrews firm has initiated legal action against the computing giant. It alleges that in November last year an unidentified IBM employee has made an attempt to hack its e-mail server. The attempted hack was discovered after the firm realized that its computer had been slowly compromised. The security investigation that followed was able to trace back the attack to its source that according to Butera & Andrews is a computer within IBM's Cornwallis Road facility in Durham.

The lawsuit also claims that an analysis of computer logs surfaced more than 42.000 infiltration attempts by IBM computers to hack its servers. For this the Washington based firm has undergone legal proceedings to force IBM to admit responsibility for the hacking, while seeking undisclosed financial compensation.

IBM representatives have filed for a trial dismissal on grounds that it is a simple supposition with no facts to justify the accusations. In fact, even if Butera & Andrews succeed at proving that the IP of the source of the attacks is synonym to the address of IBM, there is no way of proving that the IP hadn't been spoofed or hacked and used to launch another attack. Besides denying that its machines or employees were involved in the attack, IBM did not comment the matter any further.