Ransomware – Ritzau

Denmark's largest news agency was hit by ransomware on the morning of 24 November 2020. Around a quarter of its more than 100 servers were affected, and editorial and email systems were shut down. Ritzau could not distribute news through its normal wire service.

Management described it as a professional attack and refused to pay the ransom. The agency kept publishing by improvising: six live editorial blogs, plus limited distribution by email, served as an emergency wire until systems were restored.

Notable as the only Danish incident of the period with a direct press-freedom dimension — Ritzau supplies news to most Danish media, so the outage propagated across the national news ecosystem.

• TV 2 — Nyhedsbureauet Ritzau er blevet ramt af hackerangreb
• DR — Ritzau udsat for hackerangreb
• Version2 — Danmarks største nyhedsbureau lagt ned af hackerangreb
• Version2 — Ritzau er stadig lammet efter it-angreb: Hackere kræver løsepenge
• Journalisten — Ritzau ramt af hackerangreb
• Infosecurity Magazine — Denmark News Agency Refuses to Pay Hacker's Ransom