Dozens of local newspapers owned by American media company Lee Enterprises have experienced disruptions as a result of a cyberattack.
According to its website, the company owns roughly 350 weekly and specialty publications across 25 states. Featured publications include St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Buffalo News, Omaha World-Herald, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and the Lincoln Journal Star.
Lee told the SEC last week that it suffered a technology outage on February 3 due to a “cyber incident”. The incident impacted some business applications and resulted in operational disruptions.
The cyberattack resulted in various types of disruptions at Lee-owned publications, including to printed newspapers, subscription accounts, and internal services.
The website of the St. Louis Post-Patch and several other publications still displayed a notification informing visitors about some services being unavailable as of Tuesday morning.
Lee representatives said an investigation is being conducted while the company is working on fully restoring systems. Its probe is trying to determine whether any information has been compromised.
The company has refused to share additional information on the incident, but the disruptive nature of the cyberattack suggests that Lee Enterprises may have been targeted in a ransomware attack.
However, no known ransomware group appears to have taken credit for the attack.
Related: New York Times Responds to Source Code Leak
Related: Media Giant News Corp Discloses New Details of Data Breach
Related: Philadelphia Inquirer Hit by Cyberattack Causing Newspaper’s Largest Disruption in Decades
