What Happened
HighWire Press, a global provider of digital publishing solutions, suffered a data breach discovered on March 19, 2025, when the ransomware group HellCat claimed responsibility after exploiting compromised Jira credentials stolen from a 2022 Raccoon infostealer log, allowing them to access internal systems, exfiltrate sensitive data including internal files, communications, and financial records, and threaten publication unless ransom demands were met. Another incident involving the Babuk threat actor was also reported around the same date, though details on data exposed remain unknown. No specific number of affected records was disclosed publicly, and HighWire Press focuses on scholarly publishing, raising risks to research data, intellectual property, or personal information of academics.
