Iranian Hackers Broke Into Major US Newspaper Publisher Ahead of 2020 Election

US media is report­ing that Iran­ian hack­ers broke into the com­put­er sys­tems of US pub­lish­er Lee Enter­pris­es, one of the largest news­pa­per chains in the US, as part of a broad­er effort to spread dis­in­for­ma­tion about the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Accord­ing to a Wall Street Jour­nal report:

Novem­ber 19, 2021   WASHINGTON — Iran­ian hack­ers last year infil­trat­ed the com­put­er sys­tems of Lee Enter­pris­es Inc., a major Amer­i­can media com­pa­ny that pub­lish­es dozens of dai­ly news­pa­pers across the U.S., as part of a broad­er effort to spread dis­in­for­ma­tion about the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, accord­ing to peo­ple famil­iar with the mat­ter.  On Thurs­day, the Jus­tice Depart­ment said the alleged hack­ers broke in to the dig­i­tal sys­tems of an unnamed media com­pa­ny in fall 2020 and test­ed how to cre­ate false news con­tent. Peo­ple famil­iar with the mat­ter on Fri­day iden­ti­fies the com­pa­ny as Lee Enter­pris­es, a pub­licly trad­ed com­pa­ny head­quar­t­ed in Dav­en­port, Iowa, and one of the largest news­pa­per chains in the U.S.

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We recent­ly report­ed on the US Jus­tice department’s indict­ment of two Iran­ian hack­ers accused of state-spon­sored attempts to spread dis­in­for­ma­tion ahead of the US pres­i­den­tial election.