This is a weird story, and the way I became aware of it is even stranger…
I joined a neighborhood news operation called Nextdoor.com. About a week ago
someone posted that they were upset that the local CBS affiliate was not airing
Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy . They wondered what had happened.
A few days later I saw several national news stories that the Sinclair
Broadcast Group was the victim of a ransomware attack. The following link
provides coverage of the corporate attack, but is skimpy on details of how this
was affecting operations.
https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/577599-major-russian-hacking-group-linked-to-ransomware-attack-on-sinclair
Then Saturday the entire story came into focus when our local dying news rag
ran a story about how the Sinclair ransomware attack was blocking programming
and disrupting operations of the local CBS and NBC affiliates that are managed
by Sinclair.
https://ransomwaredaily.com/attack-that-is-blocking-cbs-shows-like-jeopardy-what-is-russian-ransomware-gainesville-sun/
I have no idea why a ransomware attack could cause syndicated and network
programming to be blocked. I guess in the age of servers and distribution of
programming over broadband networks anything is possible.
There are some who are suggesting that the attack may be politically motivated.
It’s hard to tell who the Russian hackers are taking their marching orders from.
After years of Trump being accused of being Putin’s lapdog (and much worse), it
is intriguing how well Russia is doing under the Biden administration. Approval
of the Russian natural gas pipeline to Europe, while U.S. pipeline projects
were shut down. There are reports this week that the U.S. is importing more oil
from Russia than we are producing from Alaska - one article I read suggests
this is because U.S. refineries cannot get the oil they need from Venezuela and
Saudi Arabia.
The first article I linked to above notes that these are the same Russian
hackers responsible for multiple recent ransomware attacks.
Whatever is really going on here - and I would appreciate it if anyone can
provide some insights - one may question whether this is the natural evolution
of retransmission consent? Or simply some hackers trying to tap into that
lucrative revenue stream.
Regards
Craig
