Gannett has sent a letter to its employees warning them that the company recently discovered a hack that may have left some of their personal information compromised, two Gannett writers said on Monday.
According to a photo of the letter posted to Twitter by Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter and USA Today contributor Amanda Coyne, hackers compromised the company’s human resources department by gaining access to their Gannett email accounts.
The breach was discovered on March 30 when the hacker attempted to use the email accounts to authorize a corporate wire transfer request. “There is no indication that there was any acquisition of any sensitive personal data,” the letter reads.
“In letter to employees, @Gannett says its HR dept was victim of phising (sic) attack, possible data breach exposing SSNs, bank info, work history,” Gannett reporter Sean Lahman wrote in a tweet.
It is unclear how many current or former employees received the letter. Gannett did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Gannett, which owns USA Today and 109 local news outlets across the country, made a high-profile bid to acquire the Los Angeles Times parent company Tronc last year, but backed out in November. Bankers reportedly backed out of the deal over concerns about the health of the two companies’ businesses at the agreed-upon $18.75-per-share price.
Lololol just got notice of a data breach in Gannett's HR department pic.twitter.com/N5eeT65xa2
— Amanda Coyne (@AmandaCCoyne) May 2, 2017
In letter to employees, @Gannett says its HR dept was victim of phising attack, possible data breach exposing SSNs, bank info, work history
— Sean Lahman (@seanlahman) May 1, 2017