NZZ must shut down newspaper production system after cyber attack
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung continues to struggle with problems two weeks after a cyber attack on its computers. The publisher has had to shut down central systems for newspaper production and preproduce the Saturday edition as early as Thursday.
This "exceptional situation" is also associated with a reduction in scope, the company announced on Saturday. Due to the cyber attack that became known two weeks ago, some systems and services are still not available.
The IT department of the NZZ is working with external specialists on measures to remedy the situation. The electronic edition, the e-paper, on the other hand, was available without restrictions.
Newspapers of the CH-Media publishing house, which purchases IT services from the NZZ, also appeared in reduced numbers on Saturday. Instead of 16 different local split editions, only their four could be produced, the company told the Keystone-SDA news agency. Daily newspapers in all three major regions of northwestern Switzerland, eastern Switzerland and central Switzerland were affected. All journalistic content was available online and via the app.
No end in sight
The cyber attack on the infrastructure of the NZZ media group became known two weeks ago. So-called ransomware was used, CH Media announced at the time. Hackers can use this to penetrate a victim's computer system and gain access to or block IT systems or data. They can also lock out their victims with encryption technology and demand a ransom.
As the Keystone-SDA news agency learned from publishing circles, a ransom demand was made. The media companies did not comment on this when asked. CH Media publisher Peter Wanner, on the other hand, had stated in an interview a week ago that to his knowledge no such demands had been made. The financial damage was limited, he said.
It was unclear how long the problems will last. It said it was not possible to provide any further information on other effects on CH Media titles at the moment, as this was part of an ongoing investigation. Due to the "rolling development", no details could be given, NZZ stated. (SDA)
