News: 0153853335

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Sinclair TV Stations Disrupted Across the US After Ransomware Attack (therecord.media)

(Monday October 18, 2021 @05:25PM (msmash) from the security-woes dept.)


TV broadcasts for Sinclair-owned channels [1]went down Sunday across the US in what the stations have described as technical issues, but which multiple sources told The Record to be a ransomware attack. From the report:

> The incident occurred in the early hours of the day and took down the Sinclair internal corporate network, email servers, phone services, and the broadcasting systems of local TV stations. As a result of the attack, many channels weren't able to broadcast morning shows, news segments, and scheduled NFL games, according to a barrage of tweets coming from viewers and the TV channels themselves. "Internally, it's bad," a source who had to call Sinclair employees on their personal numbers to get more details about the attack, told The Record earlier today in a private conversation.



[1] https://therecord.media/sinclair-tv-stations-disrupted-across-the-us-in-apparent-ransomware-attack/



Hahahaha (Score:4, Insightful)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

I'm kind of glad cryptocurrencies weren't outlawed it time to prevent this, couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of fascists!

Re: (Score:2)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

What happens when people start doing it for shits and giggles, you know for the decades before there was crypto.

Re: (Score:2)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

It'd be an extremely rare issue, you know like the decades before there was crypto.

Re: (Score:2)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

Yep, those golden years of no viruses or worms like code red spreading wild. Pepperidge Farms remembers.

Re: (Score:2)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

Pepperidge Farms also remembers where the goalposts were. Ransomware was a vanishingly rare phenomenon.

Re: (Score:2)

by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

They all spread via the same methods.

Re: (Score:3)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

That's like saying that the common cold and ebola spread via the same methods. Technically true, but one is far more dangerous than the other.

Re: (Score:1)

by LKM ( 227954 )

Our company's insurance premiums for ransomware just doubled from last year's. Talking to a rep of the company, he said that a double digit percentage of their clients had some kind of claim related to ransomware. Their division inside the insurance company lost money during the last fiscal year, incidents were so much higher than they predicted. That definitely was not the case at any point in time before cryptocurrencies appeared.

Re: Hahahaha (Score:2)

by IdanceNmyCar ( 7335658 )

The fact you wish to blame cryptocurrency for a rise in insurance premiums is like blaming the earth's tilt for seasonal colds.

Ransomeware exists because companies have neglected appropriate security. The fact that this type of attack is on the rise because the easy of a currency that can be utilized to be less traceable only developed a profit motive. the weakness always existed and maybe now we will address it but I won't hold my breathe because of comments like this.

Re: (Score:2)

by tchdab1 ( 164848 )

The only thing you can reasonably blame on cryptocurrencies is attempted secret transactions, what they're designed for & targeted towards.

Re: (Score:2)

by sjames ( 1099 )

Most of the hacks done for shits and grins before the black hats went pro were just kids goofing around. They didn't tend to take down hospitals, major pipelines, and television networks. They preferred to put funny logos on websites and scrawl their pseudonym all over them and call it a day. Annoying and even embarrassing, but it tended to be a lot less harmful.

The most "harmful" hack in that era was the weird "Max Headroom" broadcast in Chicago. Some of them were actually funny as long as it wasn't your s

Net boon (Score:5, Insightful)

by reanjr ( 588767 )

If this lasts long enough, we might get a more informed citizenry. Sinclair programming is a cesspool of corporate shilling disguised as infotainment.

Re:Net boon (Score:4, Insightful)

by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 )

It's worse than corporate shilling, it's fascist indoctrination - remember their must-run segments included scare stories about jihadism and pro-Trump propaganda, on top of the infamous one dogwhistling about the DURN LIB'RUL MAINSTREAM MEDIA!

Re: You might want to... (Score:2)

by ThurstonMoore ( 605470 )

This article is not about Nexstar.

Re: (Score:1)

by LKM ( 227954 )

Don't worry, when there's an article about Nexstar, we'll hear about why we shouldn't care about them becuase there's yet another corporation that is even worse.

Re: (Score:2)

by LKM ( 227954 )

As a non-American, hearing Americans describe their corporate media as "leftist" is always amusing. It's interesting how different the Overton window is between different countries. Sure, in some specfic areas (e.g. LGBTQ topics), the mainstream American media tends to be to the left of the average Western country. But in most other areas (gun control, taxes, abortion, insurance, death penalty, euthanasia, to name just some topics that come to mind), the American mainstream media is squarely on the right si

Re: (Score:2)

by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

> But in most other areas (gun control, taxes, abortion, insurance, death penalty, euthanasia, to name just some topics that come to mind), the American mainstream media is squarely on the right side of the political spectrum.

How do you figure? In the US mainstream media (pretty much EVERY network and social media besides Fox) is:

gun control - For heavy gun control

taxes - For Higher taxes

abortion - Pro Abortion, even VERY late term.

death penalty - Against

insurance - Err, not really mentioned on media, n

Re: (Score:2)

by Phact ( 4649149 )

I'm sure you can document these claims.

we'll wait...

Re: (Score:2)

by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

> I'm sure you can document these claims.

I"m guessing you don't live here.

if you did, you'd not have to ask such a silly question with such an obvious answer.

Re: Net boon (Score:2)

by IdanceNmyCar ( 7335658 )

As an American, you can just call my country "the upside down".

Re: (Score:2)

by burtosis ( 1124179 )

> It's worse than corporate shilling, it's fascist indoctrination - remember their must-run segments included scare stories about jihadism and pro-Trump propaganda, on top of the infamous one dogwhistling about the DURN LIB'RUL MAINSTREAM MEDIA!

You could say “This is extremely dangerous to our democracy”.

Re: (Score:2)

by AlanObject ( 3603453 )

Upvote this again.

If I was ever on the side of Ransomware attackers it would be in this case.

And nothing of value was lost (Score:5, Interesting)

by kunwon1 ( 795332 )

Bunch of right wing propaganda outlets, let them burn

Re: (Score:2)

by Mspangler ( 770054 )

I never heard of Sinclair, so I looked them up and they have a lot of CBS stations on the list.

Did CBS turn right wing and I missed it? Note that I have no TV reception here so I could easily have missed it.

Re:And nothing of value was lost (Score:4, Informative)

by kunwon1 ( 795332 )

Regardless of the national label attached to the local stations, they are firmly and centrally controlled by Sinclair, who uses them explicitly to spread propaganda. The corporate overlords distribute written 'news stories' that each local station is obliged to run. These 'news stories' are anything but journalism, they are pure propaganda. There is a lot written on this topic elsewhere

Re: (Score:2)

by gtall ( 79522 )

No, it is merely the truth, Sinclair is dog doodoo.

Re: (Score:2)

by kunwon1 ( 795332 )

bingo

For ransom? How gauche. Do it for STYLE (Score:3)

by 50000BTU_barbecue ( 588132 )

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjeUuakHsLw

Don't tie locals to RSN channels (Score:2)

by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 )

Don't tie locals to RSN channels

Dish may lose the Sinclair channels as dish really does not to be forced to put the RSN's into the basic tears with no real choice for the end user.

Re:Don't tie locals to RSN channels (Score:4, Funny)

by RedMage ( 136286 )

"Basic tears" - Oh, how close to truth you are here...

("Tiers" for non-English first language people...)

Whoever helps Sinclair (Score:4, Informative)

by k2r ( 255754 )

Whoever helps Sinclair fixing their systems should go to hell to admin their Windows ME for all eternity.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer group (Score:3)

by nospam007 ( 722110 ) *

These are no innocent victims.

Such gloating, much wow (Score:4, Insightful)

by TigerPlish ( 174064 )

I can't wait 'til it happens to CNN. Will there be the same gloating? The same reveling, the same dancing atop graves?

You won't find me dancing on their graves, tho. I'll be having a brandy watching you lot lose your shit when the day finally comes that your corporate teat - CNN - is exposed as nothing more than Minitruth. Government-paid propaganda. Push that delicious Commie narrative. White man bad. Brown man stupid and unable to better self because white man (tm). Wear your piehole gag. Suburbs bad. Nothing at all going on at the southern border. 2020 Election Most Secure Ev-uh.

You people probably thought Pravda was a trustworthy news source.

*rolls eyes*

Such brainwash. much wow.

Bring it on, my good doge (Score:2)

by RyoShin ( 610051 )

> Will there be the same gloating? The same reveling, the same dancing atop graves?

Absolutely. Not only is CNN bad in its own right--their "reporting" is disappointing at absolute best and 24 hours news media is a problem in-and-of-itself--but their parent company, AT&T, plays a large role in the existence of One America News Network. [1]Here's CNN itself reporting such. [cnn.com] OANN does propaganda and lying in depth whereas Sinclair does it in breadth; AT&T is a devil in its own right, to boot, without needing

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/media/att-oan/index.html

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