The Guardian Newspaper Hit by Ransomware Attack; UK Employee Data Accessed

The Guardian Media Group revealed that the cyberattack that forced the company and newspaper to shut down its offices last month stemmed from a ransomware attack.

Ransomware attacks can seriously hurt a company or institution, even forcing them to completely shut down operations, depending on the severity of the incident. The Guardian attack on Dec. 20 was severe enough to force the company to close the main offices, but it was able to maintain production of a daily newspaper. The online part of the business wasn’t affected.

Guardian Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Bateson, and the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner, sent the staff an email explaining what happened. According to the few details they shared, the attackers apparently managed to trick someone into downloading malware via phishing.

The company says the personal data of readers and subscribers wasn’t accessed in the attack, although this is a prevalent tactic in most recent incidents of this nature. The personal information of the Guardian US and Guardian Australia wasn’t affected.

The situation is different for the data of UK staff, as the first indication is that attackers accessed that type of information. Until now, no stolen or private data surfaced online.

“We believe this was a criminal ransomware attack, and not the specific targeting of the Guardian as a media organisation,” reads the email.

“These attacks have become more frequent and sophisticated in the past three years, against organisations of all sizes, and kinds, in all countries,” the CEO and Editor-in-Chief added.

The Information Commissioner’s Office and police have been informed of the attack, which was severe enough to take at least a couple of weeks to fix and to get some of the critical systems back online.