(Reuters) - A cyber attack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major U.S. newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co (TPCO.O) such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.

A hooded man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration

The cyber attack appeared to originate outside the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.

The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, Tribune, Sun and other newspapers that share a production platform in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers also include the New York Daily News and Orlando Sentinel, said it first detected the malware on Friday.

The West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were hit as they are also printed on the shared production platform, the Los Angeles Times said.

Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and produce “newspapers across our properties.”

“There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said in a statement

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Most San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers were without a newspaper on Saturday as the virus infected the company’s business systems and hobbled its ability to publish, the paper’s editor and publisher Jeff Light wrote on its website.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said it was studying the situation.

“We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” said DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman in a statement.

Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not immediately available for comment.</s>This post was originally published on this site

U.S. NEWS Cyberattack targets newspapers in US, prevents some from publishing https://linewsradio.com/cyberattack-targets-newspapers-in-us-prevents-some-from-publishing/ http://abcnewsradioonline.com/national-news/

iStock/Thinkstock(LOS ANGELES) — Several U.S. newspapers came under attack from apparent hackers on Saturday, preventing some from printing and distributing their daily editions.

The Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun were among the major newspapers that had printing issues on Saturday. The cyberattack appeared to target newspapers owned by the Tribune Publishing Company.

“This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers,” Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement. “Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted.”

Most tweeted online apologies to readers — as well as links to stories on their sites explaining the problem.

The Department of Homeland Security told ABC News in a statement that it is investigating.

“We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident effecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” Katie Waldman, DHS spokeswoman, said.

The source of the attacks was a “foreign entity,” according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.

It is not clear what the motive of the attacks was, but the Tribune Publishing Company said in a statement “the personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised.”

The Trump administration released a new National Cyber Strategy in September aimed at deterring malicious online behavior, specifically from Russia and China.

The paper accuses Russia, Iran and North Korea of conducting “reckless cyber attacks that harmed American and international businesses and our allies and partners without paying costs likely to deter future cyber aggression.”</s>A cyberattack on the Tribune Publishing Company's computer system led to printing and distribution problems at major newspapers. Newspapers affected included the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, both of which are no longer owned by Tribune Publishing but still shares some systems.

Jeff Light, the editor and publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, said in statement the attack appeared to begin Thursday night and continued into Friday for their production. Director of Distribution Joe Robidoux said print subscribers should get Saturday's paper delivered with Sunday's edition.

Light said the digital replica of the paper was also affected.

The news of the cyberattack was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. A source told the Times the source of the attack was a "foreign entity."

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security told Reuters they are investigating the attack.

According to a statement from Marisa Kollias, a spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing Company, the company's computer alert systems detected the presence of malware that impacted some back-office systems which are primarily used to publish and produce the newspapers.

"Every market across the company was impacted," Kollias told the Times.

The company worked to come up with a workaround to produce the newspapers, but there were some delays in delivery. Distribution was also affected of other newspapers, including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, that use the same printing presses in some markets as Tribune Publishing.

Kollias said there is no evidence customers' personally identifiable information or credit card had been impacted, nor was the information of subscribers, advertisers and online users.</s>Newspapers that are part of the Tribune Publishing group were hit by an apparent cyberattack this week, which affected printing and distribution of their editions over the weekend.

The Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, and more publications were affected by the malware breach, according to reporting from the L.A. Times.

The breach affected the process by which newspapers in this publishing group were printed, creating long delays on data that is shared between the publications and their printing presses. As a result, other publications were also hurt by the cyberattack, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, whose West Coast printing processes rely in part on using the same printing facility as the L.A. Times.

It was unclear from which country the cyberattack originated from, but an anonymous source with a deep understanding of the attack confirmed that it was not from within the United States. That source also stated on the record that the attack seemed to target newspapers in order to disrupt their printing processes, and was not intended to try and get anyone’s personal information, subscriber or otherwise.

“We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” the source explained.

“There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said, per reporting from CNBC.

An official statement from the company itself further elaborated that the breach didn’t affect customers.

“The personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised,” Tribune Publishing wrote in its official statement.

The cyberattack affected Saturday distribution of many of the Tribune Publishing group’s papers. Most of the San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers did not receive a paper at all on that day, for example.

At issue was how the software systems of Tribune Publishing publications interacted with the printing process. News stories, photographs, and other relevant information that would ordinarily transmit electronically to the printing press was disrupted, which in turn delayed the process by which that data would be turned into plates from which the papers could be printed.

The U.S. government stated that it was aware of the situation involving the cyberattack, and investigating the matter further.

“We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation,” a spokeswoman with the Department of Homeland Security said.</s>A computer virus disrupted production of the Chicago Tribune and other Tribune Publishing newspapers across the country, the company said Saturday.

The print edition of the Chicago Tribune was published Saturday without paid death notices and classified ads, while in other markets a similarly slimmed-down version of the Saturday newspaper will be delivered on Sunday.

Tribune Publishing news websites were not affected, and no customer information was compromised, the company said Saturday.

“This issue has affected the timeliness and in some cases the completeness of our printed newspapers,” Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said in a statement. “Our websites and mobile applications however, have not been impacted.”

Tribune Publishing discovered the presence of malware Friday that impacted some systems used to publish and produce newspapers across the company, Kollias said.

The company is investigating the malware attack and “making progress” to resolve issues with its newspaper production, Kollias said. Tribune Publishing also reported the attack to the FBI on Friday.

“There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said.

All Tribune Publishing newspapers were impacted by the malware, with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, for example, unable to produce its paper in time for Saturday delivery. Those newspapers will be delivered on Sunday, the company said.

Saturday editions of suburban Chicago newspapers the Lake County News-Sun and Post-Tribune will also be among those to be delivered on Sunday.

In Southern California, former Tribune Publishing newspapers the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune were impacted by the same malware, with many home delivery customers experiencing delays and some not receiving the paper at all.

Los Angeles Times spokeswoman Hillary Manning said the company is working to resolve the computer problems, but delivery issues may linger throughout the weekend.

Tribune Publishing completed its $500 million sale of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune to biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong in June, but still provides printing and other services to the California newspapers in an ongoing transition services agreement.

Formerly known as Tronc, Tribune Publishing also owns The Baltimore Sun; Hartford Courant; Orlando Sentinel; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Md.; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa.; the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va.</s>A cyberattack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major US newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.

A cyberattack caused major printing and delivery disruptions on Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major US newspapers, including ones owned by Tribune Publishing Co such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun.

The cyberattack appeared to originate outside the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation.

The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, Tribune, Sun and other newspapers that share a production platform in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers also include the New York Daily News and Orlando Sentinel, said it first detected the malware on Friday.

The West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were hit as they are also printed on the shared production platform, the Los Angeles Times said.

Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and produce "newspapers across our properties."

"There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised," Kollias said in a statement

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Most San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers were without a newspaper on Saturday as the virus infected the company's business systems and hobbled its ability to publish, the paper's editor and publisher Jeff Light wrote on its website.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said it was studying the situation.

"We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident affecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation," said DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman in a statement.

Representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were not immediately available for comment.</s>A cyberattack coming from outside the U.S. caused major printing and delivery problems for newspapers across the country the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday The newspaper was among dozens affected by the malware. Others included the Ventura County Star, San Diego-Union Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune and more.Distribution was also affected for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, which are both printed at the Los Angeles Times' printing plant in downtown Los Angeles, the paper reported.An anonymous source provided information on the malware attack to the L.A. Times, saying the attack was conducted by a "foreign entity."The Times reports the problem may have started Thursday and spread Friday, where it was detected and technology experts began to look into it.The cyberattack shut down software systems that contain stories and other information needed to create plates that print the papers, according to the Times.A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement."We are aware of reports of a potential cyber incident effecting several news outlets, and are working with our government and industry partners to better understand the situation," it said.</s>LOS ANGELES — Staffers at some of America’s best-known newspapers are wondering whether their systems were the victim of a foreign cyberattack.

Several papers, including the Los Angeles Times and The Hartford Courant, suffered printing and distribution delays as a result of the incident.

There is real concern about the effectiveness of the attack.

Tribune Publishing said “malware” was detected on its servers Friday. The San Diego Union-Tribune, which also called it a “virus,” said most subscribers were left without a Saturday morning paper as a result.

The incident affected other newspapers in other ways. At The Baltimore Sun, for example, the usual comics and puzzles were not included in Saturday’s print edition, the paper tweeted.

In Southern California, distribution of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal was also delayed, because all of the papers rely on the same back-end printing presses.

The L.A. Times, citing a “source with knowledge of the situation,” said Saturday that the cyberattack “appears to have originated from outside the United States.”

A spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing said she could not confirm that.

And staffers at some of the affected papers said they haven’t received much information from management about the extent of the cyberattack.

An internal memo from Tribune CEO Justin Dearborn on Saturday referenced “malware” and said “we are making progress with this issue.”

Papers using Tribune software were affected. The L.A. Times and the Union-Tribune are no longer owned by Tribune, previously known as Tronc. But the papers continue to use some of Tribune’s systems.

The virus “hobbled our ability to publish,” Union-Tribune editor and publisher Jeff Light said in a Saturday morning letter to readers.

According to Dearborn’s memo and the company’s statement, workers had to create “workarounds” to get the Saturday editions printed.

“There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Dearborn wrote.

But some important back-office systems were interrupted. When some L.A. Times readers called to inquire about their print edition, the customer service phone lines were on the fritz.

And staffers at two papers using Tribune software told CNN Business that the time card system for keeping track of working hours was offline for some time.

The websites of the affected papers were never impacted, however.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel’s online story about the virus started off by saying: “We are still here.”</s>The Los Angeles Times says an unusual cyberattack that disrupted its printing operations and those at newspapers in San Diego and Florida over the weekend came from outside the United States, but it stopped short of accusing a specific foreign government.

[NEW YORK] The Los Angeles Times says an unusual cyberattack that disrupted its printing operations and those at newspapers in San Diego and Florida over the weekend came from outside the United States, but it stopped short of accusing a specific foreign government.

Computer malware attacks on infrastructure, while relatively rare, are hardly new: Russia has been credibly accused of shutting down power grids in Ukraine and a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia, Iran crippled a casino in Las Vegas, and the United States and Israel attacked a nuclear enrichment plant in Iran. But this would be the first known attack on major newspaper printing operations, and if politically motivated, it would define new territory in recent attacks on the media.

The malware was focused on the networks used by Tribune Publishing, which until recently owned The Los Angeles Times and The San Diego Union-Tribune. The two papers still share their former parent company's printing networks.

The Los Angeles Times said the attack also affected the Saturday distribution of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, which share use of a large printing plant in Los Angeles for their West Coast editions. Both appear to have been collateral damage; there was no evidence that they were hit by the same malware aimed at the Tribune company.

The online editions of the news organizations were not affected, and Tribune Publishing said no data about its subscribers was compromised.

"Every market across the company was impacted," Marisa Kollias, a spokeswoman for Tribune Publishing, told The Los Angeles Times. The Tribune's remaining publications include its flagship, The Chicago Tribune, and newspapers in Florida, Hartford, Connecticut, and Maryland. It also owns The Daily News in New York.

Missing from Tribune's statements were any details about the nature of the malware or evidence for its assertion that the attack originated overseas. Anonymous sources cited by The Los Angeles Times suggested that the malware may have been a form of ransomware — a pernicious attack that scrambles computer programs and files before demanding that the victim pay a ransom to unscramble them.

Even if the attack was the work of foreign hackers, that does not necessarily mean it was backed by a government. Ransomware attacks are frequently the work of criminal groups, with three notable exceptions: a huge attack by hackers in North Korea in 2017, an attack months later against Ukraine by Russian hackers and, more recently, attacks against US hospitals and even the city of Atlanta by hackers in Iran. Those latest attacks were believed to be the work of individuals and not directed by Tehran.

Neither Tribune Publishing nor The Los Angeles Times said the attack was linked to a ransom demand.

But a news article in The Los Angeles Times, and one outside computer expert, said the attack shared characteristics with a form of ransomware called Ryuk, which was used to target a North Carolina water utility in October and other critical infrastructure. Some experts have linked that malware to a sophisticated North Korean group, but CrowdStrike, a security firm that has been tracking the group behind Ryuk, said it believed cybercriminals in Eastern Europe were responsible.

Adam Meyers, head of threat intelligence at CrowdStrike, said cybercriminals appeared to have been infecting victims with Ryuk through a criminal tool called Trickbot. The tool was used in banking attacks and, more recently, attacks on major businesses and infrastructure in the United States, Canada and Britain.

Sophos, another security vendor, said Ryuk's creators were selective about whom they targeted. They deploy the ransomware against victims that can pay large, often six-figure ransoms, particularly in the commodities, manufacturing and health care industries, Sophos said.

Whoever is behind the ransomware, the attacks appear to have paid off. This month, the group, which goes by the name Grim Spider, received a ransom payment of nearly 100 bitcoin, the equivalent of more than US$380,000.

It apparently took Tribune a while to understand the nature of the attack. The problem first appeared to be a malfunctioning computer server. The first evidence of the attack emerged Thursday night, The Los Angeles Times reported, and by Friday it appeared to have been contained. But it came back — a frequent occurrence with sophisticated attacks — and began to spread through the systems that govern the interface between the news content systems and the systems that control the printing of the newspapers.

By late Friday, The Los Angeles Times said, "the attack was hindering the transmission of pages from offices across Southern California to printing presses." Among the hardest hit was the San Diego paper, whose production teams could not transmit the files that enable the making of page plates for the printing presses.

As a result, delays cascaded across the printing schedules for other newspapers. The South Florida Sun Sentinel was also hit, the newspaper reported on its website. It said distribution of The New York Times and The Palm Beach Post had also been affected, because they share the same presses.

On Sunday, Hillary Manning, vice president for communications at The Los Angeles Times, said, "The presses ran on schedule, and papers were being delivered as usual today." She added, "The systems outage caused by a virus or malware has not been completely resolved yet."

About 20,000 copies of The New York Times from the Los Angeles plant were delivered a day late, a spokeswoman for the paper, Eileen Murphy, said.

Colleen Schwartz, a spokeswoman for The Wall Street Journal, said she could confirm that The Journal "was impacted in certain regions," though she did not have any details on which areas or the number of copies affected.</s>A cyberattack Saturday targeting a major newspaper publishing company reportedly affected distribution at prominent newspapers across the United States.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Tribune Publishing was affected by a cyberattack originating outside of the U.S., which caused service disruptions for the Saturday editions of major newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun.

The west coast editions of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were also reportedly affected by the cyberattack, as the two papers are published by the Los Angeles Times’s production facility.

“We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information,” a source with knowledge of the situation told the L.A. Times. – READ MORE
A cyberattack disrupts distribution of newspapers published by Tribune Publishing.