Nashville’s Fox News affiliate WZTV was among several Sinclair Media outlets that was victim to a ransomware attack over the weekend, according to Monday reports.
“On October 16, 2021, the Company identified and began to investigate and take steps to contain a potential security incident,” Sinclair said in a statement. On October 17, 2021, the Company identified that certain servers and workstations in its environment were encrypted with ransomware, and that certain office and operational networks were disrupted. 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.”
WZTV said in a short statement that it was having “serious technical issues,” and that they had no access to their company emails or phone system.
Other stations across the country, like ABC affiliate WJLA in Washington, D.C., opened an afternoon broadcast by saying its computers and video servers were nonfunctioning.
WNWO in Toledo, Ohio, was completely off air for a period of time.
Sinclair insisted that it reacted quickly to attack, bringing in legal counsel and a cybersecurity forensic firm
“Promptly upon detection of the security event, senior management was notified, and the Company implemented its incident response plan, took measures to contain the incident, and launched an investigation,” the statement said. “The Company also notified law enforcement and other governmental agencies. The forensic investigation remains ongoing.”
The extent of the data breach remains unknown.
“As the Company is in the early stages of its investigation and assessment of the security event, the Company cannot determine at this time whether or not such event will have a material impact on its business, operations or financial results,” Sinclair said.
Sinclair is a publicly-traded company and took a massive blow after the irksome Monday news, dropping almost 3 percent in value.
As a result of another ransomware attack two weeks ago, major social media companies, including Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, were offline for nearly a whole day.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Sinclair Media” by Maryland GovPics. CC BY 2.0.
