Lee papers hit by ransomware attack

[HanSenSE]

... so they follow stupid junk with more stupid Junck?

Very well played sir. Touch them all ...

 

[dixiehack]

GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY OR LEE GETS IT!

 

[MTM]

I got a notice of data breach letter in the mail yesterday. I haven't worked for Lee since around 2010.
Social security numbers were part of the breach.

 

[swingline]

Inverted pyramid lives!

 

[swingline]

In response to obtaining 1,000 shares of Lee stock, Ransomware lays off 50 percent of its workforce, moves its central hacking operation to India and limits hacking to three days a week.

In a cost-cutting move, they'll slash their shifts from 18 hours a day to 16.

 

[swingline]

GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY OR LEE GETS IT!

Oh, baby, you are so good. And they are so stupid.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I got a notice of data breach letter in the mail yesterday. I haven't worked for Lee since around 2010.
Social security numbers were part of the breach.

I worked for a family owned daily in the early 90s. Adams Publishing bought them out in 2019. Shortly thereafter I got notice that they had been hacked, and I could have a free year of Experian credit protection on them. It might have happened even without the buyout, but who knows.

The Lee-owned Wisconsin State Journal reported recently that ransomware hackers got into the Iowa County (Wis.) courthouse, and real estate transfers couldn't be completed. You can run but you can't hide.

 

[HanSenSE]

I got a notice of data breach letter in the mail yesterday. I haven't worked for Lee since around 2010.
Social security numbers were part of the breach.

Same here, and we parted company in 2015. Surprised they found me.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

In response to obtaining 1,000 shares of Lee stock, Ransomware lays off 50 percent of its workforce, moves its central hacking operation to India and limits hacking to three days a week.

Hack smarter, not harder.

 

[oldandtired]

Got my letter on Tuesday, four years after getting thrown into the trash by this wonderful dollar-stock company.
I am not impressed with their horse**** apology and their offer of 12 months of credit monitoring etc. etc. All basic, lowest-acceptable-amount offerings. Wouldn't the hackers see this and wait 13 months before bombing folks' accounts?
Anyway, with almost 40,000 people involved, I've contacted a few attorneys to see if anyone is interested in firing up a class-action lawsuit to make them recognize there should be a price to be paid for laying off experienced IT staff and treating former employees' important private data with the same callous disregard they treat(ed) their former and current employees.

 

[MTM]

Same here, and we parted company in 2015. Surprised they found me.

I've moved twice since I last worked for them and they found me.

But Freedom didn't. A former colleague got a letter about the Freedom/Orange County Register bankruptcy from 2016ish. They still owe us back vacation pay.

 

[tapintoamerica]

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Lee Enterprises sent $25 million in cryptocurrency, 1,000 pica poles, 500 proportion wheels, 100 TRS-80's (with couplers), and 250 pairs of Mary Junck's shoes to international hackers who encrypted critical applications and exfiltrated certain data in a Feb. 3 cyberattack.

What about the content generator to be named later?

 

[baddecision]

Update on class action possibilities re. the Lee data breach:
I found one firm that has filed a lawsuit against Lee on the behalf of an Iowa individual. I contacted the lead counsel, who said it will very likely become a class action. This one has pluses in that a) it has already sued on behalf of one person and b) the law firm is in Iowa, Lee's home state.
I also found four other firms that are investigating the possibility of a class action. Two are in Oklahoma (one's in Tulsa), one is in Florida and one is in DC.
One apparently wants you to sign up for their class action right away via a form. I didn't do that, as it didn't seem like a good idea. The three others are just looking for info right now and haven't committed to filing.
You can find them all with 10 minutes of Googling, or DM me. I don't want to post it here and have Lee's lawyers jump on it in some way. My interest in vigorously pursuing just compensation from Lee transcends the money a successful class action would bring.

 

[baddecision]

More on Lee data breach:

Three attorneys have filed class actions. No idea if they'll combine forces or soldier on individually. I filed a complaint with my state and pretty much got a "who gives a ****" response. I have a feeling the payout is going to be less than worth the effort. However, I have been trading emails with a Lee attorney who is hopefully dinging them for $500 an hour to respond.

From St. Louis Business Journal (https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis...tch-owner-payout-new-class-action-claims.html) on June 29:

Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ... is now facing three invasion-of-privacy lawsuits from current or former employees.
The three new lawsuits, each filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, allege that Lee, which owns hundreds of newspapers and specialty publications in Iowa and 24 other states, is guilty of negligence, breach of an implied contract, unjust enrichment and invasion of privacy.
Each of the three lawsuits is seeking class-action status in pursuit of damages on behalf of thousands of current and former Lee employees whose personal information is believed to have been accessed by cybercriminals. The three named plaintiffs in the cases are Nicole Church of Colona, Illinois; Declan Lawson of Missoula, Montana; and Anthony Bangert of Wisconsin.
According to the lawsuits, on June 3, 2025, Lee began sending letters to current and former employees advising of them that the private information of certain employees had been accessed by others without authorization. The lawsuits allege the letters omitted details such as the cause of the data breach, the system vulnerabilities that had been exploited, and any remedial measures undertaken to guard against additional security breaches.
In one of the cases, the plaintiff asserts the "purported disclosure amounts to no real disclosure at all" in that it fails to provide critical facts surrounding the incident, limiting workers' ability to take steps to mitigate any damages that might result. Lee, the lawsuits claim, could have prevented the data breach by properly securing and encrypting the files and file servers containing the employees' private information and by training its employees on standard cybersecurity practices.
The data breach, one of the plaintiffs alleges, could have been avoided had Lee "bothered to implement basic monitoring and detection systems, which then would have stopped the data breach or greatly reduced its impact."
Lee Enterprises has yet to file a response to the lawsuits, and Tracy Rouch, director of communications for Lee, said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
However, Lee has stated that it has incurred $2 million in expenses related to restoring data systems in the wake of the February 2025 cyberattack. The company has also indicated the data breach affected the company's finances by hampering its ability to bill customers and pay vendors.

 

[baddecision]

And for one of Lee's more prominent publications, the embarrassing unforced errors keep on coming:

From the very good free Madison weekly Isthmus (Wisconsin State Journal ‘re-reports’ Brayton Lot story after original removed for ‘unauthorized use of AI’)

A story about development plans for a vacant downtown block that appeared on the front page of the Sunday, July 13, issue of the Wisconsin State Journal was removed Wednesday from the Madison daily newspaper's website before being replaced by a "re-reported" story Thursday afternoon.
An editor's note on the re-reported story states that the original "contained incorrect information and quotes that were created by an unauthorized use of AI, which does not adhere to the Wisconsin State Journal's editorial or ethical standards."
Reached by email Thursday afternoon, State Journal editor Kelly Lecker said she was tied up in a meeting and could not talk. She referred Isthmus to Tracy Rouch, director of communications for Lee Enterprises, which owns the State Journal. Rouch did not immediately return a phone call.
Isthmus reached out to Audrey Korte, the reporter of the original story, by email Thursday afternoon and received this auto-reply: "Audrey Korte is no longer with Lee Enterprises." Contact information for State Journal city editor Phil Brinkman was also listed.
In the original story, headlined "Final piece of the puzzle" in print and "2 redevelopment plans emerge for Downtown Madison's last vacant block" on madison.com, Korte detailed two proposals for Block 113. Better known as the Brayton Lot, the block bordered by East Washington Avenue and South Hancock, East Main and Butler streets has been targeted for redevelopment by the city for decades.
One section about "The Grove," a proposal from Neutral, a Madison real estate development firm, outlined plans for a "food hall prioritizing minority-owned vendors" and a "community advisory board" that would shape the development's public life. Neither of those features, nor the name "The Grove," appear in Neutral's proposal linked from a city press release listing the firms that responded to its RFP.
"It's all wrong," says Daniel Glaessl, Neutral's chief product officer. No reporter had contacted the firm about the project before Isthmus reached out on Thursday afternoon, he says.
"We have not been contacted and we have not given any information," Glaessl says.
Korte, a former Chippewa Herald reporter who started at the State Journal in May 2025, also quoted "Marcus Lee," identified as the co-owner of "Capitol Grounds Café on East Main Street." No such business exists on East Main Street or anywhere in Madison. Searches for Lee and Capitol Grounds on Google, LinkedIn, and other social media sites turn up no results, though there are restaurants with that name in Washington D.C., and Montpelier, Vermont.

 

[oldandtired]

It appears that all Lee newspapers that currently have seven-day print schedules, from St. Louis to Omaha to Tucson to Madison to Buffalo, will cease printing Monday editions next month. The death knell is near for these masters of mismanagement.

 

[micropolitan guy]

It appears that all Lee newspapers that currently have seven-day print schedules, from St. Louis to Omaha to Tucson to Madison to Buffalo, will cease printing Monday editions next month. The death knell is near for these masters of mismanagement.

No Monday paper in Buffalo will be a huge hit. I mean, who there wants to read about the Bills game?

No Monday paper if they somehow make the Super Bowl?

 

[baddecision]

No Monday paper in Buffalo will be a huge hit. I mean, who there wants to read about the Bills game?

No Monday paper if they somehow make the Super Bowl?

Where did anyone say the Lee suits were smart and forward-thinking?
What makes me laugh is to think of the Bills winning the Super Bowl and the players on the field holding up a fake front page of the Buffalo News celebrating the victory ... and then there's no such paper the next morning.

 

[HanSenSE]

I've been getting post cards from various law firms regarding the data breach settlement. Looks like I can take an early payout or do nothing and be part of the class action payout. Thoughts?

 

[HanSenSE]

It appears that all Lee newspapers that currently have seven-day print schedules, from St. Louis to Omaha to Tucson to Madison to Buffalo, will cease printing Monday editions next month. The death knell is near for these masters of mismanagement.

The former Lee paper in Hanford, CA, recently went to once a week publication, and bragged about it as a return to its roots! On Wednesay, of course, to cater to the grocery stores. Just out of curiosity, though, when one of the local high schools won state in girls basketball, on a Saturday, went to its web page and, crickets.