According to reports of cyber forensics course specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), The Weather Channel (TWC), a U.S. television network focused on the weather forecast, suffered a critical cybersecurity incident that forced to shut the live transmission of the channel; it is believed that it could be a severe ransomware attack.
On Monday morning, the TWC team had to
broadcast a recorded program instead of its regular live broadcasting due to a
cyberattack that prevented live streaming on the channel; more details about
the incident are still unknown.
Through a statement, TWC reported: “This morning we experienced some
problems with live streaming due to malicious software detected on our
networks. Thanks to our backup systems we managed to restore our regular
broadcasting; the federal authorities are investigating the incident.
Channel presenters apologized for the drawbacks
when the transmission was revived, adding that the signal was interrupted by
the aforementioned cyberattack; Experts in cyber forensics course still do not
know technical details of the attack against TWC, it is also ignored if this
was an attack directed against the TV channel or if it is a coincidence.
The developers of some variants of ransomware
and other kinds of malicious software have shown a growing interest in
attacking big targets, such as television networks, although in practice there
are few occasions when the attackers try to infect companies like this in a
direct way.
According to the cyber forensics course experts,
it is possible that the attackers were able to access the networks of TWC thanks
to a little careful employee. Some member of the channel’s administrative staff
could have received and interacted with a malicious email and that is more than
enough for the attackers to get into their target. The cybersecurity community
remains in the expectation that more details about the incident will be
revealed by the television network.
