While the US newspaper interruption is dragged, Lee Enterprises blames the cyberattack of encryption of critical systems

The Lee Enterprises newspaper giant said the ongoing cyberattack is causing interruptions throughout its business and is now in its third week of interruptions.

In submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Lee said he was conducting forensic analysis to determine whether sensitive or personal data had been stolen in the cyberattack.

“Preliminary investigations show that the participants in the threat are illegally accessible the company’s network, encrypted critical applications and have set out certain files,” Lee said In his submissiondescribing the incident like a RansomS

Lee said she had foreseen the interruptions to continue for several more weeks as the company was restoring the affected systems. The company said it had notified the law enforcement authorities.

“The incident influenced the company’s operations, including distribution of products, billing, collections and payments to suppliers. The distribution of print publications in our portfolio of attempts and online operations were partially limited, “the company said in the submission.

Tracey Ruch, a spokesman for Lee Enterprises, did not immediately return a request for a comment on Tuesday.

Lee is one of the largest publishers of newspapers in the United States and provides services for the issuance and websites to 72 publications across the country.

Lee informed the affected media on February 3 The one of his data centers, which hosts the applications and services used by Lee and his customers, including his subscribers’ payment services, is “down”, according to an email sent by Lee CEO Kevin Mouverei, which TechCrunch has seen.

Later, Lee said his customers were not able to enter or have access to key business applications.

Several LEE -owned publications continue to report their regular news print operations. Winston-Salem magazine covers North Carolina, said His interruptions prevented print several editionsWhile two newspapers based in Oregon, Democrat-Herald Democrat and Corvalis Gazett-Times had similar problems preventing the publication From at least two editions to the weekend.

Other LEE publications show messages on the website that “are currently subjected to support for some services that can temporarily affect access to subscription accounts and the electronic edition.”

The Freedom Foundation has Executive List of the affected retail outletsS

Lee said the incident was “wisely” likely to have a significant impact on the company’s financial results.

Do you know more about the LEE ENTERPRISES cyberattack? Contact Zack Whittaker surely on signal and WhatsApp at +1 646-755-8849. You can also share documents securely with TechCrunch via SecuredropS