Lee Enterprises Says 40,000 Hit by Ransomware-Caused Data Breach

American media company Lee Enterprises revealed this week that the disruptive cyberattack it dealt with earlier this year resulted in a data breach impacting nearly 40,000 individuals.

Lee Enterprises owns 350 weekly and specialty publications across 25 states, and dozens of them suffered disruptions in February as a result of a ransomware attack that involved the encryption of critical applications and the theft of files.

The company informed the Maine Attorney General’s Office this week that it recently completed its investigation into the incident and determined that personal information was compromised.

According to Lee Enterprises, the attackers may have obtained the information of 39,779 people, including their names and Social Security numbers.

Affected individuals are being offered 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection services.

The Qilin ransomware gang took credit for the attack on Lee Enterprises in late February, claiming to have stolen 350 Gb of files.

The cybercriminals at the time threatened to leak the stolen data unless a ransom was paid. They published samples of the data to demonstrate their claims, including screenshots of passport and driver’s license scans, as well as corporate documents. 

It’s unclear if the Qilin group did make the stolen data public. Lee Enterprises no longer appears to be listed on the cybercrime gang’s Tor-based leak website. 

Lee Enterprises noted that it has “no evidence of the misuse, or attempted misuse, of any potentially impacted information”.

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