The Guardian, a British publication, has revealed that it has suffered a severe IT issue, which it thinks is likely a ransomware hit.
In a note to staff, Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson and Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner said, "There has been a serious incident which has affected our IT network and systems in the last 24 hours. We believe this to be a ransomware attack but are continuing to consider all possibilities."
The "IT Incident"
As first reported by The Guardian's media editor, the incident occurred late on Tuesday, Dec. 20, and has disrupted some of the company's tech infrastructure. It prompted management to tell employees to work remotely for the rest of the week.
Some of the supporting services have also been interrupted.
There has been little to no impact on online publication, with new articles regularly appearing on the Guardian's website and mobile app.
The media outlet maintained optimism that Thursday's newspaper issue might still be printed.
"We are continuing to publish globally to our website and apps and although some of our internal systems are affected, we are confident we will be able to publish in print tomorrow. Our technology teams have been working to deal with all aspects of this incident, with the vast majority of our staff able to work from home as we did during the pandemic," said Bateson and Viner.
It is unknown whether any data was taken or if The Guardian was issued a ransom demand. And according to TechCrunch, other facts concerning the incident remain vague.
Criminals that use ransomware usually steal sensitive information from their victims and threaten to leak it unless they are paid a ransom.
It is also not apparent who is responsible for the assault, and no big ransomware gang has yet claimed responsibility.
Also Read : Uber Investigates Third-Party Cyberattack, Leaks Employees' Email Addresses, and Other Company Data
Prior Same Cases
Cybercriminals have made a habit of attacking media outlets throughout the world.
US corporate website Fast Company was hacked in September with the intention of sending malicious push alerts to Apple News readers.
As per previous reports, someone going under the name "Thrax" hacked into Fast Company news and caused the incident. Even though a name was exposed, the actual perpetrator of this breach was still unknown.
Twitter was flooded with various screenshots from concerned iPhone owners. A number of individuals who are not subscribed to Fast Company nonetheless got similar alerts.
The alert takes readers to another hacked article where the same provocative language is used.
Meanwhile, in October, the New York Post reported that its website and Twitter had also been hacked. Racist, violent, and sexually explicit headlines about prominent people had been published at the time.
However, later on, the company representative said that an inquiry found one employee was responsible for the misconduct and that the individual had been terminated.
