The giant of the newspaper Lee Enterprises said that a current cyber attack causes disturbances in its activities and is now in its third week of breakdowns.
In a file with the American Securities and Exchange Commission, Lee said that he was carrying out a forensic analysis to determine whether sensitive or personal data had been stolen in the cyber attack.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that threat actors illegally accessed the company’s network, encrypted from critical applications and exfiltrated certain files,” said Lee in its depositdescribing the incident as a Ransomware attack.
Lee said he was planning that breakdowns to last several more weeks because the company restores affected systems. The company said that it had informed the police.
“The incident had an impact on the operations of the company, in particular the distribution of products, the invoicing, the collections and the payments of the suppliers. The distribution of publications printed in our portfolio of delay products, and online operations were partially limited, “said the company in the file.
Tracy Rouch, spokesperson for Lee Enterprises, did not immediately send a comment request on Tuesday.
Lee is one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States and provides publication and website services to 72 publications across the country.
Lee informed the media affected on February 3 That one of its data centers that hosts the applications and services used by Lee and its customers, including its services for the payment of subscribers, was “broken down”, according to an e-mail sent by the CEO of Lee, Kevin Mowbray, which Techcrunch has seen.
Lee later said that its customers were unable to connect or access key commercial applications.
Several publications belonging to Lee continue to report the disturbances of their regular new printing operations. The Winston-Salem newspaper, covering the North Carolina, said The disturbances prevented him from printing several editionsWhile two Lee newspapers, based in Oregon, Albany Democra-Herald and Corvalis Gazette-Times, had similar problems preventing publication From at least two editions until the weekend.
Other LEE publications display messages on the website they “currently undergo maintenance on certain services, which can temporarily assign access to subscription accounts and e-edition publishing”.
La Freedom of the press foundation a A list of points of sale assigned.
Lee said the incident is “reasonably likely” to have a significant impact on the company’s financial results.
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