Cyberattack From Abroad Hits Newspaper Distribution Across US – Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A cyberattack which appeared to originate from abroad disrupted the publication and distribution of numerous newspapers in the United States, papers hit by the malware said.

The Los Angeles Times newspaper cited a source familiar with the matter as saying Saturday that the alleged attack impacted the software systems used to produce the papers, but no data was leaked.

"We believe the intention of the attack was to disable infrastructure, more specifically servers, as opposed to looking to steal information," the source said, adding the attacker was a "foreign entity."

Tribune Publishing, which owns or helps print the affected newspapers – The Times, the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, as well as West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times – admitted delays on Twitter.

"A disruption to our print production systems caused delays in the delivery of some of our newspapers Saturday. We apologize to all of our readers for the inconvenience," it said.

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Media company’s spokeswoman Marisa Kollias assured subscribers and advertising clients in a statement cited by the media that their personal details had not been compromised.

The Times said that the glitch was detected Friday but technology teams were unable to fix the problem before press time. As a result, several Saturday newspapers will be distributed in their slimmed-down versions on Sunday.