Lapsus$, which claims it gained access to Impresa’s Amazon Web Services account, sent a phishing email to subscribers and tweeted from the newspaper’s verified account
03 January 2022 - 13:55
byCatarina Demony
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Lisbon — The websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and of a major broadcaster, both owned by the country’s largest media conglomerate Impresa, were down on Monday after being hit by a hacker attack over the weekend.
Expresso newspaper and SIC TV station both said they reported the incident to the criminal investigation police agency PJ and the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) and would file a complaint.
The alleged hackers, calling themselves Lapsus$ Group, published a message on the websites saying internal data would be leaked if the media group failed to pay a ransom. The message included email and Telegram contact info.
The group did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Lapsus$, which claims that it gained access to Impresa’s Amazon Web Services account, also sent a phishing email to Expresso subscribers and tweeted from the newspaper’s verified Twitter account.
The same group allegedly hacked Brazil’s health ministry website last month, taking several systems down, including one with information about the national immunisation programme and another used to issue digital vaccination certificates.
CNCS’s coordinator, Lino Santos, told Observador newspaper it was the first time the group launched an attack in the country.
Websites of Expresso and SIC are have been offline since Sunday, with the pages showing a message saying they are “temporarily unavailable” after the attack and would return “as soon as possible”.
In the meantime, both media organisations are publishing news stories on their social media channels. They described it as an “unprecedented attack on press freedom in the digital age”.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Portugal’s Impresa media websites hit by hackers
Lapsus$, which claims it gained access to Impresa’s Amazon Web Services account, sent a phishing email to subscribers and tweeted from the newspaper’s verified account
Lisbon — The websites of one of Portugal's biggest newspapers and of a major broadcaster, both owned by the country’s largest media conglomerate Impresa, were down on Monday after being hit by a hacker attack over the weekend.
Expresso newspaper and SIC TV station both said they reported the incident to the criminal investigation police agency PJ and the National Cybersecurity Centre (CNCS) and would file a complaint.
The alleged hackers, calling themselves Lapsus$ Group, published a message on the websites saying internal data would be leaked if the media group failed to pay a ransom. The message included email and Telegram contact info.
The group did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
Lapsus$, which claims that it gained access to Impresa’s Amazon Web Services account, also sent a phishing email to Expresso subscribers and tweeted from the newspaper’s verified Twitter account.
The same group allegedly hacked Brazil’s health ministry website last month, taking several systems down, including one with information about the national immunisation programme and another used to issue digital vaccination certificates.
CNCS’s coordinator, Lino Santos, told Observador newspaper it was the first time the group launched an attack in the country.
Websites of Expresso and SIC are have been offline since Sunday, with the pages showing a message saying they are “temporarily unavailable” after the attack and would return “as soon as possible”.
In the meantime, both media organisations are publishing news stories on their social media channels. They described it as an “unprecedented attack on press freedom in the digital age”.
Reuters
Cybercrime: the dark side of Black Friday
Prosus-backed Skillsoft buys out online platform Codecademy for R8.3bn
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
JAMIE CARR: Transnet’s railway to hell
DEON JOUBERT: EU protectionism is a black spot on citrus growth prospects
Russians hackers behind SolarWinds attack are planning more, Microsoft says
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.