PressReader Suffers Cyber Attack

Digital newsstand PressReader, the world’s largest digital newspaper and magazine distributor, had opened up its newspaper and magazine content inside Ukraine, to help ensure that all those living in the country have free access to timely and accurate information. 

Resources available include respected global and national news and current affairs publications, including the likes of The Guardian, El Pais, Newsweek, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and others. Then there followed a cyber attack on PressReader that left readers around the world unable to access more than 7000 publications.

The company has headquartered in Canada, and  offices in Dublin, Ireland and  the, Philippines began experiencing a network outage affecting its Branded Editions website and apps and its PressReader site. The global outage impacted all PressReader’s local, regional and international newspapers and magazines online on mobile devices and in print.

Users in countries including Australia, Canada, the UK and the US were blocked from accessing titles, including The Guardian, Vogue, Forbes, and the New York Times. By 11th March, the company’s security teams had classified the outage as “a cyber security incident.”

In a statement PressReader said it was working to restore services and make content available to users. The company added that its investigation into the cyber-attack had not found any evidence that customer data had been compromised. “PressReader’s technical teams have been working around the clock to address the recent disruptions to services,” said the statement.

The cyber attack came days after the company removed dozens of Russian titles from its catalog and publicly stated that it would help the Ukrainian citizens access the news following Russia’s invasion of their country.

On February 25, the company said on social media: “In order to assist those in Ukraine with accessing up-to-date information, we are opening all PressReader content in the country without charge to individuals. PressReader will absorb the cost paid to publishers until further notice.”

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