back to article UK's Guardian newspaper breaks news of ransomware attack on itself

UK broadsheet media outlet The Guardian has become the victim of a ransomware attack which seems to have taken out a large chunk of office-based systems. Journalists at the center-left newspaper have continued to work from home and publish on its website, but according to the publication's own output, it has been hit by "a …

  1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Bar-Stewards

    Fortunately it looks like The Guardian crew are a bit better organised than many others. Still an expensive nuisance though. I'll wait till the dust settles, then make a donation. We need unaffiliated reporting.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bar-Stewards

      You forgot to put the sarcasm emoticon.

      They aren't exactly "better organised" if they have been hacked, and think it *might* be ransomware, but haven't worked it out yet.

      1. that one in the corner Silver badge

        Re: Bar-Stewards

        You spot something has got into your system, cut the infected chunk out and recover from a backup.

        Once it is gone and the damage repaired, if you never gave it a chance to announce that it was ransomware, as opposed to something just trying to trash the place for yucks, do you really care?

      2. Strahd Ivarius Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Bar-Stewards

        well, it is either ransomware or MS update, difficult to distinguish between them...

    2. Eponymous Bastard
      WTF?

      Re: Bar-Stewards

      Unaffiliated reporting? Like any other news shit pipe?

      1. Tams

        Re: Bar-Stewards

        A lot of the opinion pieces are a load of shite (with a few gems), but they aren't the news and journalistic investigations. The latter, The Guardian excel at.

      2. Thought About IT

        Re: Bar-Stewards

        "Unaffiliated reporting? Like any other news shit pipe?"

        At least they're not constantly creating new enemies to rage against, like the Telegraph and DM, with their wars on "woke" to deflect attention from the riches accruing to their non-dom proprietors.

  2. wolfetone Silver badge
    Joke

    I heard their IT department at The Graunaid was told initially it was randomware, so they didn't bother doing anything...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      IT department at The Graunaid

      I think you mean the Grauniad.

      http://thegrauniad.com/

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      > so they didn't bother doing anything...

      Didn't they just run out a fawning advert for the new (or last, or next) iPhone ?

  3. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Ransomware for what ransom?

    "Pay us £1m or we'll fix your smell chucker!"

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

    Surprised Britain has an offensive cyberattack capability

    Picturing special Branch Constable Savage just hitting a keyboard with a truncheon.

    1. Lil Endian

      Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

      Nah, not Special Branch, send in Gene Hunt!

      He wouldn't bring a truncheon, just the perp.

      Hunt: They reckon you’ve got concussion – I couldn’t give a tart’s furry cup if ‘alf your brains are falling out. Don’t ever waltz into my kingdom acting king of the jungle.

      1. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

        Which reminds me of

        "How many policemen does it take to break an egg?"

        .

        .

        .

        "None... it will fall down the stairs by itself"

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

        Didn't they send a bunch of cyber security special operatives to smash a couple of redundant macbooks when the Gruniad published the Snowdon stuff?

        Or was that MI5 ?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

      Constable Savage was in the Special Patrol Group, as any fule kno.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

        He got promotion when the SPG were disbanded

        What's latin for: meet the new thugs, same as the old thugs

        1. The Oncoming Scorn Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: cyberattacks by criminals and nation states

          Every fule knows he was transferred to the SPG after a series of 117 charges against a gentlemen named Mr Winston Cudoogo of 55 Mercer Road.

          Charges included:

          Loitering with intent to use a pedestrian crossing.

          Smelling of foreign food.

          Urinating in a public convenience.

          Coughing without due care and attention.

          Looking at me in a funny way.

          walking on the cracks in the pavement.

          Walking in a loud shirt in a built-up area during the hours of darkness and walking around with an offensive wife.

  5. Scott Broukell

    Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

    (see title)

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      IT Angle

      Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

      I monitor the corporate mail-server 7/24 and see that the anti-virus performance will delete 80% of incoming malware. If that's happening on other mail servers then there's a potential that someone will receive "paymentupdate_pdf.rar and open it - a malware delivery updated 10 minutes ago and currently undetected by the anti-virus performance.

      My protection is to quarantine all risky attachments, that has kept us safe but means that we have a lot of work behind the scenes because virtually all Microsoft files (.doc, .img etc) are infected when they arrive. Basically, the delivery of attachments like these are allowed in many other instances. Other risks are receiving a warning email saying that your password has expired - with a link infection to visit.

      1. Scott Broukell

        Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

        @Version 1.0 - Oops, I think I should have used the Joke icon. I was trying to make a funny at the expense of the Grauniad's renowned spelling anomalies. Seasonal best wishes to you.

        1. Commswonk

          Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

          @ Scott Broukell...

          Your post has given the game away to those the other side of the pond who might not have otherwise

          cont p94.

        2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

          LOL Scott, no problem, that was funny. I've always thought that the Guardian's spelling and grammar errors tell me that the stories are written by excellent journalists who are concentrating on what happened, not spelling. Sure, it will make me laugh when I see the spelling but the journalists are busy writing about what happened, not what their editor tells them that they need to say to generate advertising income. I'm not complaining, I'm laughing!

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

            It's also a test for people who are of an age, I don't think the younglings know the meme - since Manchester's finest got computers

          2. john.w

            Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

            The Guardian is very popular with Russia Today who often rerun their stories to show how corrupt and dismal the UK is.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Stay clam everyone and don't picnic!

              Easy solution to that: elect a less corrupt and dismal government.

  6. VoiceOfTruth

    Likely culprit

    The US regime is no fan of The Grauniad and would think nothing of doing something like this.

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

      Re: Likely culprit

      I think you'll find there's a laundry list of organisations and individuals that would like to see it gone.

      1. IGotOut Silver badge

        Re: Likely culprit

        The Tories? No chance, it would cost £500million , take 5 years and the encryption would consist of renaming .pdf to .pdf.old.

        1. VoiceOfTruth

          Re: Likely culprit

          Even if it did cost £500 million it would not matter. It would come out of some special government fund and end up in the pocket of a friend of some minister.

      2. C R Mudgeon

        Re: Likely culprit

        I expect you're right. To the extent that's true, it means that the Guardian is doing good work.

        Upvoted because I agree with your assessment, not because I agree with the people you refer to. Because I don't.

  7. DenTheMan

    Not a Monty Python answer...

    ..200 nations are helping police with their enquiries.

  8. Bitsminer Silver badge

    ...the center-left newspaper...

    Ummm, does that mean it is a little off-center? Off camber? Off?

    Inquiring minds want to know.

    1. that one in the corner Silver badge

      Re: ...the center-left newspaper...

      Well, "center-left" is clearly USAzian speak, which translates to something like "rabid right wing" in RotW.

      But in the UK, we know The Grauniad to be "left of centre", which would be "Dang Pinkoes" in Yankish.

      As for being off-centre, well, some have said that reporting on the floating island of Sans Serif to be eccentric. Though I'd never say they were "off Camber', as they gave a good rating to the Gallivant restaurant and generally say that The Sands are a nice place to visit down in Sussex.

  9. Pat Harkin

    Grauniad and ransomware - not a good combination

    There's no way they're ever going to type in the recovery password correctly...

  10. Champ

    Snide, or am I missing something?

    "tears in the quinoa". Really?

    1. gotes

      Re: Snide, or am I missing something?

      Welcome to The Register.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Snide, or am I missing something?

      Yeah, musty admit I didn't get that either. The only time I've come across quinoa is the dried packets in Lidl or Aldi. So either it's something "posh" I've not come across until it trickled down the food chain or something for "poor" people. It's clearly a swipe at them, but i can't figure out which type of swipe. Maybe tears in the Tofu would have worked better, especially with the alliteration :-)

  11. Jim Whitaker
    Facepalm

    The political/social standpoint of the Grauniad rarely lines up with my approach but it is a decent newspaper and we need decent media to thrive.

  12. flayman

    We believe this to be ransomware(?)

    "We believe this to be a ransomware attack but are continuing to consider all possibilities."

    We believe? It's not a very good ransomware if the victim doesn't know for certain that it is ransomware and also where to pay the ransom. One wonders whether this might not simply be a major IT cock-up using the spectre of ransomware as cover.

    1. TRT

      Re: We believe this to be ransomware(?)

      They're not sure if it's an encrypting ransomware that swaps all the letters around, or if it's BAU.

    2. LateAgain

      Re: We believe this to be ransomware(?)

      Reports say that it is SPELLCHECKING all the submitted articles !

  13. lordminty

    Is Carole Cadwalldr on the case?

    How has this not been fixed yet?

    I mean The Guardian has the finest investigative IT journalist to unleash on the incident, Carole "Russian bots" Cadwalldr, winner of journalistic awards on the subject of hacking, with loads of "sources" to bail them out.

    I expect she's frantically hitting her Macbook's keyboard right now, Googling "IP addresses in Russia"

  14. john.w

    Guardian 'Centre Left'

    Making the Guardian 'Centre' Left is so that the phrase 'Far' Right can be applied to any paper that might be less than fully committed to the socialist dream.

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