Security News > 2021 > October > Sinclair TV network crippled by potential ransomware attack
TV stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group broadcast television company went down over the weekend across the US, with multiple sources telling BleepingComputer a ransomware attack caused the downtime.
Its operations include 185 television stations affiliated with Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, and The CW, with approximately 620 channels in 87 markets across the US. This is the second incident that impacted Sinclair's TV stations in July 2021, when the company asked all Sinclair stations to change passwords "As quickly as possible" following a security breach.
Ransomware attack likely behind TV stations going down.
The attackers have been able to impact many TV stations via Sinclair's corporate Active Directory domain.
Several corporate assets were taken down in the incident, including the email servers, broadcasting, and newsroom systems, forcing TV stations to create Gmail accounts to receive news tips from viewers and use PowerPoint for newscasts graphics.
Since reports of Sinclair TV stations going down began coming in, as first reported by The Record, some of them have managed to start broadcasting again.
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