LA Radio: Station Automation Hacked

The Louisiana Association of Broadcasters reports one of it member radio stations was “hijacked” this past Friday, October 17, 2014.

The owner of the un-identified station says it’s going to cost tens of thousands of dollars to replace computers and software in his facilities. He is suggesting that anyone running Windows XP should evaluate and upgrade to a newer version supported by Microsoft.

He has three stations but, only one was “hijacked.” They use Windows XP, which is no longer supported by Microsoft. He thought he was okay because he had a firewall through his server. He was running OMT iMediaTouch Radio Automation System.

According to the LAB, an employee went to the station at 5:00am on Friday to get everything up and running. At 5:45, the employee called the owner and said that they could not get any audio over the air…the owner went to the station and after five hours they were able to ascertain that the system had been taken over. Then, they began to receive ransom e-mails asking for payment to get the station back on the air. The station was off for about seven hours. It appears that hackers may have come in through Windows XP and took over the OMT iMediaTouch Radio Automation System and brought it down.

LAB President Polly Johnson emphasizes that details have not been confirmed, but LAB wanted its sibling state associations to be aware.

RadioWorld reports, the station reportedly was off the air for some hours. According to OMT Technologies, which took a call from the worried broadcaster, the station apparently had been attacked by a virus called CryptoWall that corrupted a server that supports several station systems.

The virus encrypts data and demands a payment from the victim.

OMT President/CEO Bill Baines said that although the problem was not related to OMT software, his staff assisted the station in its efforts to disconnect its automation and focus on the problematic server.

Baines did not comment about specifics of the station’s IT setup but, speaking generally, he advised stations to be aware of OS updates and to keep antivirus software current. But he said firewalls can’t always protect stations from IT intrusions because viruses can come in via otherwise legitimate carriers. For this reason, many larger broadcasters, he said, physically separate all broadcast assets from the outside world.