Agreed. I wish I better understood how a PR firm manages to place an article that is so clearly an advertisement, like this, with such a major news outlet, without it setting off the editor's spidey-sense.
She's been working with a few security firms for over a year doing research into a few threat groups. I think this was a better story than a simple network tap at a datacenter. In that sense, it probably was handed to her simply because it was different and more relatable.