Lee Enterprises, a major player in the U.S. publishing industry, has disclosed that nearly 40,000 individuals had their personal information compromised during a ransomware attack in February 2025. The company operates 77 daily newspapers and more than 350 weekly and specialty publications nationwide, catering to a vast audience that exceeds 1.2 million daily subscribers and tens of millions of digital readers each month.
In a recent filing with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Lee Enterprises revealed that documents containing personally identifiable information (PII) of 39,779 individuals were accessed without authorization on February 3, 2025. The compromised data includes first and last names as well as Social Security numbers.
The ransomware attack led to significant operational disruptions across the publisher’s newsrooms, triggering widespread printing and delivery issues. Several outlets experienced system outages, with local newsrooms reporting the incident’s impact on their operations through various sources, including St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Buffalo News.
A week following the breach, Lee Enterprises submitted a report to the SEC, indicating that the attackers had encrypted vital applications and exfiltrated sensitive files during the cyber intrusion, which was confirmed to be a ransomware attack by Bleeping Computer.
The Qilin ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, asserting that they have stolen around 120,000 documents totaling 350 GB. The hackers threatened to release the data on March 5 unless their demands were met. The group’s claims were made public on several platforms, including their dark web leak site, which displayed samples of the stolen data such as government ID scans and confidential agreements.
Lee Enterprises has acknowledged the claims from the Qilin group and is currently investigating the situation further. The company previously experienced a network breach in 2020 by Iranian hackers as part of a campaign designed to spread disinformation ahead of the U.S. presidential election.