Malware Attack Disrupts Newspaper Printing Plants

A malware attack suspected to have originated outside the U.S. prevented the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers across the country from publishing many of their Saturday print editions, according to the Times.

• By Jessica Davis
• Jan 04, 2019

A malware attack suspected to have originated outside the U.S. prevented the Los Angeles Times and other newspapers across the country from publishing many of their Saturday print editions, according to the Times.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the malware attack was a computer virus that primarily affected many of the newspapers in the Tribune Publishing network as well as papers outside of the network that use the same production platforms or software.

The affected newspapers included: The San Diego Union-Tribune and possibly every paper in the Tribune Publishing network which includes the Baltimore Sun, the Capital Gazette, the New York Daily News, and the Orlando Sentinel. In addition to papers within the Tribune network, the malware attack also affected the Southern California editions of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

The virus infected and disrupted newspapers’ news production and printing processing systems, resulting in problems when sending pages to the printing presses.

The malware appears to have only affected the publishing process and to not have targeted any data. “The personal data of our subscribers, online users, and advertising clients has not been compromised,” Tribune communications vice president Marisa Kollias said in a statement.

The Times reported that the cyberattack “appears to have originated from outside the United States.” According to the Times, the company “is investigating whether the computer problems were the result of a cyberattack by a third party.”