Channel Nine Possibly Hit by a Ransomware Attack on Sunday
The Attack Disrupted the Broadcasting Operations in its Sydney Broadcasting Facility.
The Australian Channel Nine has been taken off air yesterday, following a cyberattack that targeted its IT system, therefore disrupting the live broadcasts.
Nine is a part of Nine Entertainment Co., one of Australia’s largest media groups, including the newspapers The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
For the time being no one had claimed the alleged ransomware attack. The broadcaster declared that an investigation is taking place in order to see whether the hack of its systems was “criminal sabotage or the work of a foreign nation.”
The technology that brings you 9 News every night is under attack by hackers.
Whether it’s criminal sabotage or the work of a foreign nation is still being investigated, but this attack could reveal a nationwide vulnerability. @MarkWBurrows #9News pic.twitter.com/YL8l1DLNVV
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) March 28, 2021
The attackers were able to bring down the TV Channel’s news production across Australia for more than 24 hours, furthermore, the network’s website was also affected by this breach, with several shows, like Weekend Today, suffering outages throughout Sunday.
Local reports are saying that Nine might have suffered the largest cyberattack aimed at a media company in the history of Australia.
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According to BBC reports Australia’s parliament might have also been the subject of a possible cyberattack on Sunday, although it remains unknown if the attacks were connected.
The network declared it was cooperating with the Australian Cyber Security Centre in order to investigate, but it may take weeks for production to return to normal.
The Nine Network is at the center of the largest cyberattack on a media company in Australia’s history, which has brought the network’s news production systems around the country to a grinding halt for more than 24 hours.
Television and digital production systems have been offline since the early hours of yesterday morning. This site, 9news.com.au, has also been affected.
The Today show is back on the air this morning.
The nature of the cyber attack — and if it is criminal sabotage or the work of a foreign nation — is still being investigated.
In a news report, tech expert Fergus Hanson, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, declared the nature of the hack makes a government look responsible for the incident.
If you did get asked to pay a ransom, it might be a ransomware attack, in which case you would be looking at a cybercriminal … If you didn’t get asked to pay a ransom, you may be looking at other actors, including state actors.
If you do actually get a call to hand over $1 million to free up your systems, then you would be looking more at a cybercriminal activity but you have to get a bit more detail to be clearer about which type of attack you’ve got.
Mr. Hanson said Nine’s reporting of authoritarian governments around the world could have triggered the cyber attack, taking into account the fact that the network is supposed to air an investigation on Monday in regards to the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the use of poison against overseas dissidents.