As disruption from a suspected ransomware assault on newspaper publishing big Lee Enterprises enters its second month, the cyberattack can be affecting funds to freelancers and contractors who work for the corporate, TechCrunch has discovered.
The cyberattack on Lee Enterprises on February 3 sparked wide-scale outages and ongoing disruption at dozens of newspapers throughout america, together with delays to print editions. Lee confirmed on February 18 that the hackers “encrypted essential functions” affecting the corporate’s operations, together with its “distribution of merchandise, billing, collections, and vendor funds.”
One contractor for a Lee-owned property, who requested to not be recognized for concern of retaliation, informed TechCrunch that as an out of doors vendor, they nonetheless haven’t been paid for his or her work a month after the cyberattack.
The individual informed TechCrunch that Lee Enterprises mentioned it was engaged on the difficulty, however that the individual hasn’t heard something from the corporate since mid-February. The individual, who’s owed hundreds of {dollars}, mentioned that the scenario is inflicting nervousness and uncertainty.
“Lee Enterprises and its subsidiaries work with a various community of distributors to offer providers for the corporate’s operations,” the individual mentioned. “This vendor community contains each companies and particular person freelance staff who’re employed to carry out a variety of providers together with editorial content material manufacturing,” they added.
The contractor mentioned they haven’t any estimated timeline for once they can count on the seller fee system to be operating once more.
Salaried workers are unaffected, TechCrunch understands, though one system that Lee Enterprises workers use to file reimbursements for his or her bills continues to be inaccessible, an individual acquainted with the matter informed TechCrunch.
When requested about funds to distributors, freelancers, and contractors, Lee spokesperson Tracy Rouch couldn’t affirm and wouldn’t remark past the corporate’s regulatory submitting on February 18.
In accordance with that submitting, Lee mentioned the cyberattack was “fairly prone to have a fabric affect on the Firm’s monetary situation or outcomes of operations.”
Qilin, a prolific ransomware gang recognized for disruptive cyberattacks, has since taken credit score for the cyberattack at Lee Enterprises in a submit on its darkish net leak website, which it makes use of to extort victims into paying a ransom.
Rouch mentioned Lee Enterprises is “conscious of the claims and are at the moment investigating them.”
Carly Web page contributed reporting.
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