Lee Enterprises Suffers Qilin Ransomware Attack, Exposing Nearly 40,000 Individuals’ Data In February, U.S. local newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises fell victim to a Qilin ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) attack, resulting in the compromise of sensitive data belonging to 39,779 individuals, including Social Security numbers. The breach, which involved the exfiltration of 350 GB of data, disrupted both online and print production for several of the company’s local newspapers. The data exposure was only confirmed on May 28, nearly four months after the initial intrusion, according to breach notification letters sent to affected individuals and filed with Maine regulators. In response, Lee Enterprises is offering one year of complimentary credit monitoring to impacted individuals and has pledged to cooperate in investigations to hold the attackers accountable. The attack has had significant financial repercussions for the company, which reported spending $2 million on recovery efforts and experiencing severe disruptions to its advertising revenue. The incident underscores the growing threat of RaaS operations targeting critical infrastructure and media organizations.