Sinclair Gets Hit By Ransomware Attack

(RTTNews) - Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI) faced a massive outage last week after being crippled by ransomware. The company initially reported that the outage was being caused due to some technical difficulties but a couple of days later, Sinclair filed with the FTC stating that ransomware was behind the disruption. One of the subsidiaries of Sinclair, Katu news, reported Tuesday, "The attack has impacted many of our network systems across the country and is disrupting some of the station's normal operations. Our team here in Portland, along with Sinclair's corporate staff, are working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible." According to the filing, the company said, "Data also was taken from the Company's network. The Company is working to determine what information the data contained and will take other actions as appropriate based on its review." Talking about the damages, the broadcasters noted that there has been "disruption to parts of the Company's business, including certain aspects of its provision of local advertisements by its local broadcast stations on behalf of its customers." The attackers were not able to crack open a system that controls many national shows named "master control." Due to that, many of the stations were not affected. The details of what caused the attack is yet to be confirmed by the company but according to sources, the employees experienced a password change message before the attack. The company caught hold of some of its stations being down late last week and began investigating during the weekend. Sinclair is parent to 185 local TV stations in 86 markets with multiple sports channels as well. The disruption has not caused delays in the scheduled shows but has disrupted the live shows like talk shows and weather forecasts.