One of Portugal’s leading media conglomerates said Thursday that a group calling itself “Lapsus$” hacked the company’s online services, taking down some of its most popular websites and contacting subscribers.
Grupo Impresa said the attack was aimed at disrupting the company’s services and sending fake news messages to subscribers, including one that said, “Breaking: President removed and accused of murder: Lapsus$ is Portugal’s new president.”
The company said in a statement that the hackers didn’t demand any payment.
The hackers gained access to the company’s Amazon Web Services account and sent emails and text messages to subscribers, the statement said.
The hackers accessed some subscriber information, but Impresa said it had no evidence they got hold of subscribers’ passwords or credit card details.
The attack occurred early on Jan. 2, the statement said. The company regained control of its cloud services later that day, though on Thursday two of its main websites — belonging to top weekly newspaper Expresso and TV channels run by its broadcaster S.I.C. — were still using temporary sites.
The incident is being investigated by Portuguese police and the country’s National Cybersecurity Center.

More from Associated Press
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
- BBC, British Airways, Novia Scotia Among First Big-Name Victims in Global Supply-Chain Hack
- Microsoft Will Pay $20M to Settle US Charges of Illegally Collecting Children’s Data
- Insider Q&A: Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity In Military Tech
- Idaho Hospitals Working to Resume Full Operations After Cyberattack
- Major Massachusetts Health Insurer Hit by Ransomware Attack, Member Data May Be Compromised
- Biden Picks New NSA Head, Key to Support of Ukraine, Defense of US Elections
- White House Unveils New Efforts to Guide Federal Research of AI
Latest News
- In Other News: AI Regulation, Layoffs, US Aerospace Attacks, Post-Quantum Encryption
- Blackpoint Raises $190 Million to Help MSPs Combat Cyber Threats
- Google Introduces SAIF, a Framework for Secure AI Development and Use
- ‘Asylum Ambuscade’ Group Hit Thousands in Cybercrime, Espionage Campaigns
- Evidence Suggests Ransomware Group Knew About MOVEit Zero-Day Since 2021
- SaaS Ransomware Attack Hit Sharepoint Online Without Using a Compromised Endpoint
- Google Cloud Now Offering $1 Million Cryptomining Protection
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
