Sinclair affected by ransomware attack, TV stations disrupted

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., a media giant and a leading provider of news, has been become a victim of the cyber attack. In a recent announcement Sinclair admitted that it was hacked.

On October 16, 2021, the Company identified and began to investigate and take steps to contain a potential security incident. 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.

The problems are largely hindering local live programming, like the newscasts that typically air for multiple hours a day. Kristin Bien, a weekend anchor at Sinclair-owned WSBT 22, posted a tweet that the incident was a "corporate-wide problem."

Crane Hassold, director of threat intelligence at Abnormal Security, assumed the attackers behind the incident on Sinclair Broadcast Group could have gotten into the Sinclair 's network a while ago.

With many ransomware attacks these days, the initial access that precipitated the attack generally occurs weeks, if not months, ahead of time.

It is not known any ransom details or whether Sinclair paid the ransom. Also no information what threat actors are behind the cyber attack. The FBI stated the incident can be connected to REvil, a Russian criminal group.