Cyberattack likely to have ‘material impact’ on media giant Lee Enterprises’ bottom line therecord.media/cyberatta…

Media conglomerate Lee Enterprises told regulators on Friday that hackers had stolen files and encrypted “critical applications” as part of an incident that impacted the operations of dozens of newspapers nationwide.

Beginning in early February, deliveries of the print editions of some of Lee Enterprises newspapers — which include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Arizona Daily Star and dozens of others — were disrupted. The publications posted identical statements on their websites and in newspapers about a cyber incident.

In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, the company shed more light on the severity of the cyberattack, which is still unresolved. While they do not explicitly say the incident involved ransomware, it bears the hallmarks of such an attack.