NEW YORK—News Corp. told investors on Friday that in “January 2022, the Company…was the target of persistent cyberattack activity” and that it is working with an outside cybersecurity firm, to conduct "an investigation into the circumstances of the activity to determine its nature, scope, duration and impacts.”
“The Company’s preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity, and that data was taken,” the company reported in a filing with U.S. regulators.
The filing provided few details of the attack, but it noted that to “the Company’s knowledge, its systems housing customer and financial data were not affected” and that the “Company is remediating the issue, and to date has not experienced any related interruptions to its business operations or systems. Based on its investigation to date, the Company believes the activity is contained.”
The attack is comes at a time when a number of media companies have been subjected to cyberattacks. In 2021 those included ransomware attacks on Cox Media and Sinclair that impacted a variety of operations, including their TV stations.
CNN has reported that News Corp (NWS) hired cybersecurity firm Mandiant (MNDT) to investigate the breach.
In a statement cited by CNN, Mandiant "assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests," David Wong, vice president of consulting at Mandiant, said in a statement.
