The Philidelphia Inquirer News Company had its systems knocked out, though it isn’t clear if it was a cyber attack yet.
On Sunday morning, the newspaper was unable to print newspapers. However, officials at the paper quickly realized that the problem was widespread and a lot of the company’s systems were down. The skeleton crew from Saturday night found that the content-management system was down.
“(We) discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,” said Inquirer publisher, Lisa Hughes.
This prompted an investigation which has currently left the company’s office down for several days, and employees weren’t able to return until Tuesday morning. Coincidentally, the attack happened just days before the mayoral election that same Tuesday.
“When the FBI learns about potential cyber attacks, it’s customary that we offer our assistance in these matters,” Hughes said.
The FBI has already been contacted, but the FBI spokesperson gave no comment, citing his reason for declining as standard practice.
Hughes was asked a lot of questions about the timeline and what was found so far. However, the ongoing investigation prevents her from being able to report more details about the matter. She said they don’t currently know which systems were involved, who, if anyone, was targeted, or if confidential information was breached.
Within a few hours of discovering the incident, the Philidelphia Inquirer directed customers to its online edition. While their print media is currently unable to be distributed, you can continue to read their e-news from the website. That said, the company is holding off on posting death notices and classified ads — both would be postponed until Wednesday, to avoid any errors.
The company stated it does currently have plans to refund customers, since the electronic newspaper was still delivered and viewable, despite the disruption in print services.