Daily news paper ‘The Philadelphia Inquirer’ has been apparently hit by a cyber attack of ran-somware attack and it is unclear when the systems are likely to be restored. As of now, the IT staff of the news publisher based in Philadelphia have confirmed the news that the disruption of its systems is due to a cyber-attack that hasn’t been seen by them in the publisher’s history of 28 years. However, they are yet to confirm the news that it was caused due to the file encrypt-ing malware.
Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders state that the incident took place in the early hours of Saturday and so prevented the complete publishing of the Sunday’s news printing.
Lisa Hughes the head publisher said that the time frame of restoration is yet to be known and the staff are busy restoring the content-management system as of now. Official statement is out that the staff of Inquirer will not be allowed to enter the office till Tuesday and the decision can be extended if things go out of control.
Previously, a similar publishing disruption took place due to a massive blizzard that stalled the staff’s operations for a couple of days in the year 1996. Now, the news coverage has been mas-sively hit on a digital note affecting mayoral election news coverage that was scheduled to take place from Tuesday. However, some senior journalists will be allowed to access the news room on the election night and a separate set-up for the publishing has been arranged.
FBI and other law enforcement agencies has been pressed into the service to investigate and file a report about the incident to the government.
Disruption of Media, utility and transportation services have been tagged as somber issues by the Biden led government. And if any state funded actor is found behind the incident, then the white house is ready to issue retaliation orders where the perpetrator will be brought and prose-cuted as per US laws, either virtually or physically……. though its tough to implement such laws outside United States.
NOTE- The online version of Inquirer.com is being updated normally as new stories are being updated on hourly basis.
