Philadelphia Inquirer suffered its largest cyberattack in decades

The Philadelphia Inquirer suffered the most significant disruption in its standard operations for nearly 27 years after an alleged cyberattack occurred in its systems.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is a daily newspaper company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its newspaper circulation is the biggest in the United States state of Pennsylvania. The company established itself in 1829 as the Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-longest continuously operating daily newspaper in the US.

The company has been working to restore its printing operations after a cyber intrusion that prevented printing the daily supply of newspapers earlier this week. However, the company’s news operation’s website still functions after discovering the attack, but its updates showed signs of slow response.

One of the publishers of the affected entity stated that they had yet to give an exact timeline for the complete restoration of the systems. They have also appreciated their consumers’ patience and consideration while addressing and resolving the attack.

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer attack surfaced after its personnel observed an unusual activity.

 

Based on reports, the attack on Philadelphia Inquirer was first detected by its employees after they found the newspaper’s content-management system malfunctioned on Saturday morning.

The discovery prompted an investigation revealing that some computer systems behaved suspiciously. The security team temporarily took their systems offline after the attack to prevent further compromise.

The recent cyberattack has caused the newspaper company to experience its most significant disruption to publication since 1996 during the blizzard in the state.

Some experts believe that the cyberattack tried to cause a stir in the mayoral primary election next week. However, the company insisted that the disruption to their company would not affect the election coverage despite their teams not utilising the newsroom during election day.

The company has also notified its employees that they would be permitted to use offices on Tuesday since they will continue the arrangements and investigation until then.

The Philadelphia Inquirer said they had notified relevant law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI. Since they are investigating, the company did not reveal further information about the alleged cyberattack.