As disruption from a suspected ransomware assault on newspaper publishing big Lee Enterprises span into its second month, the cyberattack can also be affecting funds to freelancers and contractors who work for the corporate, information.killnetswitch has realized.
The cyberattack on Lee Enterprises on February 3 sparked widescale outages and ongoing disruption at dozens of newspapers throughout the US, together with delays to print editions. Lee confirmed on February 18 that the hackers “encrypted vital functions” affecting the corporate’s operations, together with its “distribution of merchandise, billing, collections, and vendor funds.”
One contractor for a Lee-owned property, who requested to not be recognized for fears of retaliation, advised information.killnetswitch that as an outdoor vendor, they nonetheless haven’t been paid for his or her work a month after the cyberattack.
The particular person advised information.killnetswitch that Lee Enterprises stated it was engaged on the difficulty, however that the particular person hasn’t heard something from the corporate since mid-February. The particular person, who’s owed 1000’s of {dollars}, stated that the scenario is inflicting nervousness and uncertainty.
“Lee Enterprises and its subsidiaries work with a various community of distributors to supply providers for the corporate’s operations,” the particular person stated. “This vendor community consists of each companies and particular person freelance staff who’re employed to carry out a variety of providers together with editorial content material manufacturing,” they added.
The contractor stated they don’t have any estimated timeline for after they can anticipate the seller cost system to be operating once more.
Salaried workers are unaffected, information.killnetswitch understands, though one system that Lee Enterprises staff use to file reimbursements for his or her bills remains to be inaccessible, an individual conversant in the matter advised information.killnetswitch.
When requested about funds to distributors, freelancers, and contractors, Lee spokesperson Tracy Rouch couldn’t affirm and wouldn’t remark past the corporate’s regulatory submitting on February 18.
Based on that submitting, Lee stated the cyberattack was “moderately prone to have a cloth impression on the Firm’s monetary situation or outcomes of operations.”
Qilin, a prolific ransomware gang recognized for disruptive cyberattacks, has since taken credit score for the cyberattack at Lee Enterprises in a put up on its darkish net leak web site, which it makes use of to extort victims into paying a ransom.
Rouch stated Lee Enterprises is “conscious of the claims and are presently investigating them.”
Carly Web page contributed reporting.
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