Amazing story. A little off-topic question - how do stories like this get reported (got picked-up by arstechnica)? This isn't some standard Press Release or en

Amazing story. A little off-topic question - how do stories like this get reported (got picked-up by arstechnica)? This isn't some standard Press Release or entry in the companies' blog. Is it initiated by companies (FB in this case) themselves? Or is it the journalists constantly sniffing companies for such stories? It's something I've always been curious about coming across such stories. I am assuming there is standard PR practice for such things (for example I wonder how did that FBI e-mail snapshot got shared by arstechnica, despite the blurring and e-mail being ultimately set-up, there must be strict policies in terms of what to share and what not...) Someone please shed a light ~