A ransomware attack has crippled the printing systems of the German newspaper Heilbronn Stimme, making it impossible for it to print hard copies of its daily publications.
On Saturday it had to publish a six-page “emergency” edition, followed by a 28-page e-paper on Monday. All planned obituaries were published on the website, while telephone and e-mail communications were not available over the weekend.
According to Uwe Ralf Heer, editor-in-chief of Stimme Mediengruppe, the attack affected the entire media group, which includes the companies ‘Pressedruck,’ ‘Echo,’ and ‘RegioMail.’ The attack extended to Echo’s website and affected the accessibility of its e-paper.
According to Heer, the attack was carried out by a well-known cybercriminal group that had encrypted their systems and left ransom demands on Friday night, but no concrete ransom demands had been made as of Saturday afternoon.
The editors of the newspaper have now been instructed to work from home on their PCs and have been assigned new email addresses.
In the meantime, the German police are working with the attacked media company Heilbronn Stimme to solve the technical problems as quickly as possible and identify the perpetrators.
The sources for this piece include an article in BleepingComputer.
