What's more likely is someone on the inside of one of these companies was privy to the discovery, but not the follow up.
I've been in such a situation myself where I was in the room during what LOOKED like a DDOS by Akamai 10 minutes after we got off the phone with them to turn down their CDN services.
In much the same way as Apple is refuting this claim, after a few weeks of internal debate above our pay grade we decided we didn't see it and it didn't exist and therefore it didn't.
I've been in such a situation myself where I was in the room during what LOOKED like a DDOS by Akamai 10 minutes after we got off the phone with them to turn down their CDN services.
In much the same way as Apple is refuting this claim, after a few weeks of internal debate above our pay grade we decided we didn't see it and it didn't exist and therefore it didn't.