Lee Enterprises, owner of The Journal, says cyberattack targeted 'critical applications'

[suegeo]

Source: Sioux City Journal

Hackers on Feb. 3 attacked The Sioux City Journal's parent company, Lee Enterprises, encrypting “critical applications” and stealing data, the company disclosed in a securities filing Tuesday.

It was the most information Lee has publicly released since the cyberattack hobbled the publisher of newspapers in more than 70 markets nationwide, which includes the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal-Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Buffalo News.

In the wake of the attack, newspapers in many markets initially were unable to print and distribute. The disruption delayed printing of The Journal and other three-day a week print papers, and required publishing smaller editions, with some features omitted.

Read more: https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/lee-enterprises-sioux-city-journal-cyberattack/article_60743d3a-eedd-11ef-ab10-23829b28216e.html

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Cyber attacks on numerous newspapers.

GOP fires government employees working on cyber security. GOP can't protect free speech or a free press.

What data was taken? Who has that information now.

[suegeo]

1. Ransomeware attack

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/lee-enterprises-blames-cyberattack-for-encrypting-critical-systems-as-us-newspaper-outages-drag-on/ar-AA1znuyI?ocid=BingNewsSerp&cvid=148b29747e5f4d6fe26adc102d1a5a00&ei=13

The recent cyberattack on newspaper firm Lee Enterprises has turned out to be a ransomware attack, after all.

The company confirmed the news in a recent 8-K report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), sharing more details about the attack, confirming that it was a ransomware strike.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Perfect timing: Trump's workforce blitz comes for CISA

Politico - Trump’s workforce blitz comes for CISA

By JOHN SAKELLARIADIS 02/18/2025 10:00 AM EST

/snip/

FIRST IN MC: BLACK FRIDAY: President Donald Trump’s workforce wrecking ball has officially crashed through the walls of the nation’s civilian cyber defense agency — and the demolition derby is only just beginning.

The Trump administration fired roughly 130 employees at CISA late last Friday as part of a broad push to slash the federal workforce. Now, it is expected to unveil another, larger round of mass firings as soon as today, despite growing concern they will accidentally cripple the agency’s ability to thwart hacking threats against the U.S., three people familiar with agency workforce matters told MC.

“We have literally been told that CISA will experience massive cuts, a massive reorganization,” said one current CISA employee, who like others in this story was granted anonymity for fear of retribution.

— The problem: While there are legitimate places to cut costs at CISA, the employee continued, the administration appears to be acting without any regard for who holds highly specialized national security posts, or how easy it would be to replace them. The other two people familiar with the forthcoming layoffs echoed those assessments, with all three estimating that at least a few hundred additional agency employees will soon be let go.

“They are just haphazardly cutting the people we need to respond to Russian and Chinese hacks, and they don’t even know it,” the CISA employee said, adding that those within the agency were caught off guard by the scope of the recent layoffs. “No one asked us what these people even do.”

/snip

[suegeo]

3. 75 newspapers attacked Press freedom violations

https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/more-than-75-lee-enterprises-newspapers-affected-by-cyberattack/

The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States.

The full list of outlets confirmed to have been affected, listed alphabetically by state:

Arizona — The Arizona Daily Star
Illinois — Herald & Review, Journal Gazette & Times-Courier, The Pantagraph, Woodford County Journal
Iowa — Bulletin-Review, The Daily Nonpareil, The Dispatch & The Rock Island Argus, Globe Gazette, Quad-City Times, Sioux City Journal, Southwest Iowa Herald, The Courier
Minnesota — Winona Daily News
Missouri — The St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Montana — Billings Gazette, Independent Record, Missoulian, Montana Standard, Ravalli Republic
Nebraska — The Banner-Press, Beatrice Daily Sun, The Columbus Telegram, Fremont Tribune, The Grand Island Independent, Lexington Clipper-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, The North Platte Telegraph, Omaha World-Herald, Schuyler Sun, Star-Herald
Nevada — Elko Daily Free Press
New Jersey — The Press of Atlantic City
New York — The Buffalo News, The Citizen, The Post-Star
North Carolina — Hickory Daily Record, The McDowell News, News & Record, The News Herald, Statesville Record and Landmark, Winston-Salem Journal
North Dakota — The Bismarck Tribune, The Morton County and Mandan News
Oklahoma — Tulsa World
Pennsylvania — The Sentinel
Oregon — Albany Democrat-Herald, Corvallis Gazette-Times
South Carolina — The Morning News, The Times and Democrat
South Dakota — The Chadron Record, Rapid City Journal
Texas — The Eagle, Waco Tribune-Herald
Virginia — Amherst New Era-Progress, Bristol Herald Courier, Culpeper Star-Exponent, The Daily Progress, Danville Register & Bee, The Free Lance-Star, Martinsville Bulletin, Nelson County Times, The News & Advance, The News Virginian, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times
Washington — The Daily News
Wisconsin — Baraboo News Republic, The Chippewa Herald, Daily Citizen, The Journal Times, Juneau County Star-Times, Kenosha News, La Crosse Tribune, Wisconsin State Journal
Wyoming — Casper Star-Tribune

[suegeo]

4. KICK for freedom if the press