Cyberattack causes Philadelphia Inquirer’s largest disruption in decades
PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Inquirer experienced the most significant disruption to its operations in 27 years because of what the newspaper said was a cyberattack.
The company was working to restore print operations after a cyber incursion that prevented the printing of the newspaper’s Sunday print edition, the Inquirer reported on its website.
The news operation’s website was still operational Sunday, although updates were slower than normal, the Inquirer reported.
Inquirer publisher Lisa Hughes said Sunday that “we are currently unable to provide an exact time line†for full restoration of the paper’s systems.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to fully restore systems and complete this investigation as soon as possible,†Hughes said in an email responding to questions from the paper’s newsroom.
The attack was first detected when employees Saturday morning found that the newspaper’s content-management system was not working.
An ambitious new White House cybersecurity strategy calls for bolstering protections of critical sectors and making software companies legally liable when their products don’t meet basic standards.
The Inquirer “discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,†Hughes said.
The disruption at Pennsylvania’s largest news organization was its largest since a massive blizzard in January 1996, the Inquirer reported.
The cyberattack precedes a mayoral primary election scheduled for Tuesday. Hughes said the disruption would not affect news coverage of the election, although journalists would be unable to use the newsroom on election night.
Hughes said other Inquirer employees would not be allowed to use offices through at least Tuesday, and the company was looking into co-working arrangements for Tuesday, the Inquirer reported.
An investigation is ongoing into the extent and specific targets of the attack, and the company has contacted the FBI, Hughes said.
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