Lee newsrooms across the United States have reported that the cyberattack forced the newspaper publisher to shut down many of its networks, leading to widespread printing and delivery disruptions for dozens of newspapers. BleepingComputer also learned that the resulting outage caused chaos across the newspaper group, with reporters and editors unable to access their files because VPNs used to connect securely to the network stopped working. Newspaper publishing giant Lee Enterprises has confirmed that a ransomware attack is behind ongoing disruptions impacting the group's operations for over two weeks. As a local news provider and one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States, Lee publishes 77 daily newspapers and 350 weekly and specialty publications across 26 states. Five years ago, before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the newspaper group was hit by another cyberattack when Iranian hackers breached its network as part of a broader campaign to spread disinformation. In response to the ongoing outage, Lee has also implemented temporary measures, such as manual transaction processing and alternative distribution channels, to maintain critical business functions while encrypted systems are restored. Distribution of print publications across our portfolio of products experienced delays, and online operations were partially limited," Lee Enterprises added. "The incident impacted the Company's operations, including distribution of products, billing, collections, and vendor payments. "As of February 12, 2025, all core products are being distributed in the normal cadence, however weekly and ancillary products have not been restored. The company first disclosed the breach in a 10-Q quarterly report filed with the SEC on February 7, four days after the ransomware attack was discovered. Lee is now investigating if the sensitive data or personally identifiable information (PII) was also exposed during the breach, but no conclusive evidence has been found.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Tue, 18 Feb 2025 12:40:14 +0000