• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

Washington Post journalists have been hit by a cyber attack, possibly originating with a foreign government, according to media reports.  

The incursion was discovered last Thursday and the Post commenced an investigation. On Friday, all Post employees had their passwords reset.  

The attack targeted the Microsoft accounts of reporters who write about such topics as national security and China. Their work emails and messages were also compromised, according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story. 

In an internal memo sent on Sunday, Matt Murray, the Post’s executive editor, stated, “we believe the incident affected a limited number of Post journalists accounts, and we have contacted those whose accounts have been impacted.” 

Murray added, “We do not believe this unauthorized intrusion impacted any additional Post systems or has had any impact for our customers.” 

In February, Lee Enterprises was victimized by an attack that affected its operations, including “distribution of products, billing, collections, and vendor payments,” the firm said in an SEC filing. 

The attack exposed personal data on 39,770 individuals. In addition, Lee incurred $2 million in restoration costs due to the incident.