There was a fight in downtown Atlanta today.........Film at eleven..............as soon as we get some more paper.................
Posted on 10/20/2021 7:39:58 AM PDT by gattaca
A ransomware attack at Sinclair Broadcasting Group has caused disruptions at WSBT-TV in Mishawaka as well as other TV stations owned by the company.
In a release, the Maryland-based company said it discovered Sunday that “certain servers and workstations in its environment were encrypted with ransomware, and that certain office and operational networks were disrupted.”
External phone lines were out on Tuesday at WSBT-TV, and one person indicated that the problems were affecting software needed to produce content for TV.
Broadcasts in the South Bend region on Sunday and Monday were affected by the malware attack. On the noon newscast Tuesday on WSBT, the anchors were still working without teleprompters and video graphics, relying at one point on a hand-drawn image for the weather forecast.
Sinclair also said “data also was taken from the company’s network,” and that it’s working to determine what information the data contained.”
WSBT-TV News Director John Haferkamp referred interview requests to the station's general manager, Brian Dodge. Dodge had not called by Tuesday afternoon. But at the top of its noon newscast, anchor Bob Montgomery said the station's production abilities were limited by the cyberattack but that it remained committed to reporting the news.
Without the use of video graphics, WSBT has had to rely in some cases on hand-drawn images. On its Facebook page, WSBT posted the following:
“Thank you and rest assured we are working to put our local news and other regular scheduled programming back on air as soon as possible. Sinclair Broadcast Group recently identified a cybersecurity incident involving our network. As a result of the incident, certain business operations have been disrupted. We are working to restore operations quickly and securely. We appreciate your patience and regret the inconvenience this is causing.”
The Associated Press reported that WNWO in Toledo appeared to be off the air Monday afternoon and posted on Facebook that its operations were limited. Stations in Washington, Nashville and other cities also reported they were having serious technical issues because of a cyberattack.
Ransomware involves hackers locking up computer systems or encrypting data until ransoms are paid for the release of the systems or information.
Your stories live here. Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it. Create Account The Biden administration said it aims to disrupt and prosecute criminal networks like the one that attacked a major U.S. pipeline company in May. The attack on Colonial Pipeline, which led to gas shortages along the East Coast, was attributed to a Russia-based gang of cybercriminals.
Scott Shackelford, a cybersecurity expert and associate professor of business law and ethics at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, said ransomware attacks continue to expand at an exponential pace, have jumped 45% since December.
“There’s easy money to be made,” Shackleford said. “As long as businesses, hospitals and other institutions continue to pay up, these attacks will continue.”
Such attacks often start with an employee opening an email, but Shackleford said newer zero-click attacks can infect a phone with an unopened text or an email system with an unopened message.
“Just receiving it can infect a system,” he said.
Shackleford said the United States has become more aggressive in working to stop and even launching counterattacks against would-be hackers, but even those efforts are going to come up short unless most countries agree to combat the problem.
WSBT-TV’s headquarters is on East Douglas Road in Mishawaka. Tribune File Photo Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at Abnormal Security, told the AP the hackers behind the ransomware attack on Sinclair could have gotten into the company’s system a while ago.
“With many ransomware attacks these days, the initial access that precipitated the attack generally occurs weeks, if not months, ahead of time,” he said.
Several media outlets have been hit by ransomware attacks in recent years. Cox Media Group, a major media conglomerate, said recently it was the target of a ransomware attack earlier this year. And a ransomware attack briefly knocked the Weather Channel off air in 2019.
In early September, the Facebook page for South Bend-based WNDU was hacked when a pornographic image was posted on the site. The station was forced to temporarily take down the page until the image could be removed.
These people should be found and summarily executed as terrorists, by ALL governments..............................
Notice, they never attack CNN or MSNBC.
Sinclair is a conservative corp, IIRC..................
I was thinking the same, they had on-air conservative editorials in the past.
Same thing for WRGB TV 6 in the Albany NY market. For the live of me, I can’t understand how cyber attcks cannot be prevented with software applications. I also can’t understand how we can’t have elections without the threat of malware.
WSBT has had to rely in some cases on hand-drawn images. On its *Facebook* page.
Connections ?.
There was a fight in downtown Atlanta today.........Film at eleven..............as soon as we get some more paper.................
Yep stick people are always dangerous ones.
............ The victim.............................
In the IT biz we call this a “resume generating event”.
L
Told ya they were bad people
It didn’t get reported because it was a black on white crime...............
Who knew
The terrorist are likely in the employ of our corrupt Federal government.
It’s a practice run for when they start preventing 3/4 of America from accessing the internet,their bank accounts so they can’t buy basic supplies and food.
They have the means to shut off individuals elect. They can stop your car in its tracks.
You will be trapped like rats.
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