Lee Enterprises, one of the largest newspaper groups in the United States, says a cyberattack that hit its systems caused an outage last week and impacted its operations.
In a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said the February 3 cyberattack was behind the outage that impacted its business operations.
“On February 3, 2025, the Company experienced a technology outage due to a cyber incident affecting certain business applications, resulting in an operational disruption,” Lee Enterprises revealed.
“We are now focused on determining what information – if any – may have been affected by the situation,” a Lee Enterprises spokesperson told BleepingComputer.
“We are working to complete this investigation as quickly and thoroughly as possible, but these types of investigations are complex and time-consuming, with many taking several weeks or longer to complete. We have notified law enforcement of the situation.”
Lee Enterprises newsrooms have reported that the cyberattack forced the company to shut down many of its networks, disrupting the printing and delivery of dozens of newspapers.
BleepingComputer has also learned that the resulting outage has caused chaos across the newspaper group, with VPNs used to connect securely to the network not working and reporters and editors unable to access their files.
Since the attack, multiple Lee Enterprises publications have displayed banners at the top of their websites that read, “We are currently undergoing maintenance on some services, which may temporarily affect access to subscription accounts and the E-edition. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to resolve the issues.”
“We cannot speculate on details that remain under investigation, and we will not be able to share information that could compromise our investigation or any investigation by law enforcement,” BleepingComputer was also told.
The local news provider publishes 77 daily newspapers and 350 weekly and specialty publications in 26 states. Its newspapers have a daily circulation of over 1.2 million, and digital editions reach more than 44 million unique visitors.
Its portfolio includes the Buffalo News in New York, the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia, the Arizona Daily Star, the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska, the Press of Atlantic City, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Missouri, the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming, and dozens of other media outlets.
Lee Enterprises was hit by another cyberattack five years ago, before the 2020 U.S. presidential election, when Iranian hackers breached its network as part of a broader campaign to spread disinformation.