Sinclair Workers Say TV Channels Are in 'Pandemonium' After Ransomware Attack

[Jilly_in_VA]

In the early hours of Sunday morning, hackers took down the corporate servers and systems of Sinclair Broadcast Group, a giant U.S. TV conglomerate that owns or operates more than 600 channels across the country.

Days later, inside the company, “it's pandemonium and chaos,” as one current employee, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak to the press, told Motherboard.

Sinclair calls itself “the largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country,” but it has a controversial reputation. In the last few years, the company has aggressively tried to expand its already vast empire with an attempted—and failed—acquisition of Tribune Media. Critics have also criticized it for using so-called "must-run" segments to push local news stations around the country to run identical, conservative-leaning packages.

The company is now in the headlines for being the latest in a seemingly endless list of ransomware victims. Sinclair has released very few details about the attack since it was hacked Sunday. On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the group behind the attack is the infamous Evil Corp., a ransomware gang that is believed to be based in Russia and which was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury department in 2019.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypg4w/sinclair-workers-say-tv-channels-are-in-pandemonium-after-ransomware-attack

[bottomofthehill]

1. thats too bad

sarcasm thingy

[Tetrachloride]

2. A lot depends on the quality of backup data and

all of the passwords.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. 600 channels?

Not stations, but channels. Seems like a lot

[Hekate]

13. It is a lot. The county I lived in for 35 years used to have 3 TV stations, each with its own news...

… team. They got bought up by Sinclair and now all share the same news team, despite still being 3 separate stations on the surface.

Indicative of their coverage is how they handled DeJoy’s removal of streetside letter collection boxes outside a local P.O. on an extremely busy street — they scarcely mentioned it.

I only tune in to their news coverage when there is a regional fire, and that’s because the county I now live in has no TV station of its own at all. Even then, when they draw the map to show where the fire is, there is a sharp line between the counties which presumably is where the fire ends (sarcasm).

[RussBLib]

4. I hesitate to gloat

...but these chodes deserve it.

So, I am wondering, if a company has updated it's security to the latest and greatest, are they likely to not be hacked like this? I have heard here and there that lots of these victims had not updated their security software sufficiently. I reckon that would leave most of humanity vulnerable.

But, who wants to join an org called "Evil Corp"?

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

5. ...

[spanone]

6. Good news.

[nolabear]

7. The Seattle station (KOMO) is still apologizing before every news broadcast.

It’s been a mess. I feel for the anchors, who are doing a pretty good job of surfing the constant technical breakdowns. Back when Sinclair took over quite a few expressed disagreement with their policies but continue to work. I can’t totally blame them. It’s a tough industry to mess around in.

[kozar]

8. One thing I noticed in our area

We have 2 Sinclair channels. I do not watch their news casts, but have noticed that during high peak shows that Mrs snd I watch, all local advertising is black screened. Hadn’t been a local ad since Sunday football when problem was first noticeable.
My thought is that the ransom folks are blacking these out so the local franchises have to refund money as services paid for were not received. Then the franchise owners push on the big boys cuz they are losing money?
Mrs says I over read things though.


Koz

[SWBTATTReg]

9. Can't say I support hackers and such, being that they're (the hacks) are doing this hacks

with their own agendas in mind, and no one else's.

However, Sinclair is tainted so I don't really feel sorry for Sinclair, being that they pretty well dug their own hole, and like all corporate entities, should have taken more steps to protect their networks (obviously they didn't being that they got hacked). Unfortunately too, they are in STLMO too (where I'm at).

[GoodRaisin]

10. I've seen their "conservative leaning" packages.

They are full fascist “packages”, nothing but hard right wing lying.

[FSogol]

11. LOL, how will they catapult their propaganda?

[Jilly_in_VA]

12. Our local station is Sinclair

We mostly just laugh at them. Their "news" people are wooden and their sports guy is your typical pencil neck geek. I only watch if there's a good feature on one of the JMU female athletes.

The newspaper is even worse. A RepubliQan rag that has never grown up to be a real city paper, its name is the Daily News-Record, or as my spousal unit calls it, the Daily Noise Wretched. Locals tend to refer to it as "the DNR" which really makes me laugh, me being a nurse and all. Not resuscitating that rag would be merciful.

[roamer65]

14. Putin has to be pissed.

These hackers knocked off the air one of his main outlets of Russian agitprop.

Sinclair.