All posts by Alabama Broadcasters

Lessons from a ransomware attack

UNCATERGORIZED (do not use)

ransomware-money-or-dataWe received the following account of a computer hack on an Alabama radio station Tuesday …

At 3:45AM an Alabama broadcaster received an alarm that the computer running automation in their control room had stopped.

He was unable to reboot it from home.  When he arrived at the station and rebooted the computer it came back up but would only play one file and stop again.

After careful inspection of the system folders, he discovered hundreds of our files had been replaced by a strange named file (.zepto).  Later, his IT vendor told him it is similar to the “Encrypto Virus.”

Almost two thousand files were destroyed or deleted from their system, including music, liners and over 900 ads.

The hackers installed a file entitled “Help.”  Without opening the file, the broadcaster was able to inspect it enough to see that it was saying the computer had been taken hostage and would only be released for a fee.

The broadcaster contacted his IT vendor and about three hours later, they had the computer back up and operating normally without paying any ransom.

This hacking event didn’t prevent them from airing their normal programming because they had TWO backup systems that had all the ads, music, etc., they needed.  They were able to replace all 2,000 files that had been destroyed.

The station has TWO firewalls and anti-virus software in place.  Hackers went through two servers with separate IP addresses and different passwords to do this damage.  Obviously, it can be done.

The lesson here is to have BACKUPS to the BACKUPS!

We appreciate the broadcaster alerting the ABA so we may pass along the warning.