A ransomware attack that appears to have affected a significant number of office-based systems has targeted The Guardian, a UK broadsheet media outlet.
The center-left newspaper’s journalists have continued to work from home and publish on its website, but the publication has been affected by “a serious IT incident, which is believed to be a ransomware attack,” according to its own output.
It stated that the attack occurred on Tuesday night and has affected a portion of the technology infrastructure of the company. Employees have been instructed to work from home. Behind-the-scenes services have been affected, but the company said it was confident it could still produce the print newspaper on Thursday.
If it did not, we can only assume that the quinoa would have tears in it.
Staff members were informed by Anna Bateson, chief executive officer of the Guardian Media Group, and Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief: In the past 24 hours, our IT network and systems have been impacted by a serious incident, as everyone is aware. We think this is a ransomware attack, but we’re still weighing all options. The vast majority of our employees are now able to work from home, just as they did during the pandemic, as our technology teams have been addressing all aspects of this incident.”
News organizations around the world have been regular targets for cyberattacks both by criminals and nation states, according to The Guardian, which has reported on important UK stories like the phone hacking scandal and the 1990s cash-for-questions affair. However, at this point, the company stated that it believed the incident was likely to be a ransomware attack.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), which is part of the US Treasury, found in a report [PDF] that ransomware attacks had an impact of $1.2 billion in Bank Secrecy Act filings in 2021, up 188% from 2020.
It stated, “Ransomware continues to pose a significant threat to US critical infrastructure sectors, businesses, and the public” in its analysis of ransomware-related BSA filings for 2021. ®
The Guardian Media Group chief executive, Anna Bateson, and the editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, told staff: “As everyone knows, there has been a serious incident which has affected our IT network and systems in the last 24 hours. We believe this to be a ransomware attack but are continuing to consider all possibilities.
“We are continuing to publish globally to our website and apps and although some of our internal systems are affected, we are confident we will be able to publish in print tomorrow. Our technology teams have been working to deal with all aspects of this incident, with the vast majority of our staff able to work from home as we did during the pandemic.
“We will continue to keep our staff and anyone else affected informed. We will update everyone again at the end of the day. With a few key exceptions we would like everyone to work from home for the remainder of the week unless we notify you otherwise.
“Thank you to everyone working hard throughout this incident to keep us publishing, looking after our readers, supporters and advertisers, and to keep our core systems available for colleagues.”
