Philadelphia Inquirer hit by cyberattack causing newspaper's largest disruption in decades
The Philadelphia Inquirer has experienced the most significant disruption to its newsroom in its 172-year history.
PHILADELPHIA, PA (AP) - The Philadelphia Inquirer has experienced its most significant disruption in 27 years as a result of what it calls a "cyberattack".
The company worked to restore print operations following a cyber intrusion that prevented printing of the Sunday print edition.
The Inquirer published a report on its website
.
The Inquirer reported that the website of the news operation was still functional on Sunday, though updates were slower than usual.
Inquirer Publisher Lisa Hughes stated Sunday that 'we currently are unable to give an exact timeline' for the full restoration of paper's system.
Hughes responded to a question from the newspaper's newsroom in an email.
Employees of the newspaper discovered that Saturday morning, their content-management system did not work.
Hughes stated that The Inquirer had 'discovered anomalous activities on selected computer systems' and took them off-line immediately.
The Inquirer reported that the cyberattack caused the biggest disruption in the publication of Pennsylvania's leading news organization since the massive blizzard of January 1996.
Cyberattacks are a precursor to a primary mayoral election scheduled for tomorrow. Hughes stated that the disruption of operations would not impact the coverage of the election. However, journalists would not be able to access the newsroom during election night.
Hughes told the Inquirer that other Inquirer staff will not be allowed use of offices until at least Tuesday and that the company is looking into coworking arrangements on Tuesday.
Hughes stated that the FBI was contacted and an investigation is being conducted into the scope and targets of the attack.
Inquirer reporters reported that the FBI in Philadelphia refused to respond to questions.