Foreign Hackers “Cripple” US Newspapers, Cause Widespread Delivery Disruptions
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sat, 12/29/2018
Foreign hackers infiltrated computer systems shared by several major US newspapers, “crippling” newspaper production and delivery systems across the country on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.
The attacks, which began alte Thursday night, appear “to have originated from outside the United States,” according to the Times, and resulted in distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and several other major newspapers which share the same production platform.
West coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were also affected, as they are all printed at the LA Times’ Olympic printing plant in downtown Los Angeles.
The hackers were able to disable several crucial software systems which store news stories, photographs and administrative information – which complicated efforts to make the physical plates used to print the papers at The Times’ downtown plant.
“We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” according to the source who wishes to remain anonymous.
All papers within The Times’ former parent company, Tribune Publishing, experienced glitches with the production of papers. Tribune Publishing sold The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune to Los Angeles businessman Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong in June, but the companies continue to share various systems, including software.
“Every market across the company was impacted,” said Marisa Kollias, spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing. She declined to provide specifics on the disruptions, but the company properties include the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Annapolis Capital-Gazette, Hartford Courant, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel and Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.
Tribune Publishing said in a statement Saturday that “the personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank our readers and advertising partners for their patience as we investigate the situation. News and all of our regular features are available online.” -LA Times
“We are trying to do work-arounds so we can get pages out. It’s all in production. We need the plates to start the presses. That’s the bottleneck,” said Director of Distribution, Joe Robidoux.
The problem was first detected Friday, however technology teams were unable to completely fix all systems before press time. It is unknown whether the company has contacted law enforcement regarding the incident.
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