Lee Enterprises Confirms Cyberattack: Ongoing Disruptions Hit Major News Outlets
Lee Enterprises, a prominent media corporation owning numerous newspapers across the United States, has confirmed that a recent cyberattack has led to significant disruptions at various media outlets nationwide. This incident raises crucial concerns about cybersecurity in the media sector.
Details of the Cyberattack on Lee Enterprises
In a communication shared with customers, Lee Enterprises’ CEO, Kevin Mowbray, stated that the company is actively working to restore its systems following the cyber incident that occurred earlier this week. This attack has caused widespread outages affecting numerous publications.
Spokesperson’s Statement
Tracy Rouch, a representative for Lee Enterprises, confirmed the disruption was indeed due to a “cybersecurity event.” She mentioned that the company is now concentrating on assessing which, if any, information may have been compromised during this attack.
- The spokesperson did not disclose whether the company received any communications from the hackers.
- There is no clear timeline for recovery provided by Lee Enterprises.
- Lee Enterprises remains tight-lipped about whether they have the technical capabilities to ascertain if any data was accessed or stolen.
Impact on Publications
Lee Enterprises is one of the largest newspaper publishers in the U.S., supplying publishing technology and website services to 72 publications, including the well-known St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Reports indicate that while the Post-Dispatch managed to maintain publication, many of this week’s newspaper editions were adversely affected, resulting in smaller print sizes on certain days.
Other Affected Outlets
Several other media outlets, such as the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming, also experienced issues. The Star-Tribune reported that many of Lee’s newspapers initially faced challenges in building pages and publishing content. They have been working to print and deliver back issues. Additionally, their website mentioned that the cyberattack might “temporarily affect access to subscription accounts.”
Operational Challenges
According to an internal email dated February 3, which was obtained by TechCrunch, Lee Enterprises experienced significant outages at one of its data centers hosting critical applications and subscriber services. The email highlighted that:
- Core systems, including call center applications and certain phone lines, were rendered inaccessible.
- Remote employee access was disrupted due to the VPN and single sign-on systems being offline.
As of Monday, the outages remain unresolved, and Lee Enterprises has not made its Chief Information Security Officer, Rob Hoffpauir, available for comment.
Financial Performance Amid Cybersecurity Challenges
This incident coincided with the release of Lee Enterprises’ latest quarterly earnings, which reported earnings of $144.6 million for the fiscal first quarter, reflecting a 7% decline year-over-year. Notably, there was no mention of the cyberattack or its impacts in the earnings report.
Previous Cybersecurity Incidents
This cyberattack marks the second known incident affecting Lee Enterprises in the past five years. In 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian hackers compromised Lee’s content management system as part of a campaign aimed at spreading disinformation during the 2020 presidential election.
For more information on cybersecurity in media, check out our detailed guide.
