Cox Media Group Hit by Ransomware Attack

Cox Media Group
(Image credit: Cox Media Group)

Cox Media Group, which owns 57 TV and radio stations across 20 American markets, appears to have been hit by a ransomware attack.

According to reports, the attack took place early yesterday (Thursday) morning and is said to have hit internal networks and was all the group’s streaming capabilities. Live programming was also affected.

“This morning we were told to shut down everything and log out our emails to ensure nothing spread,” a Cox employee told The Record. “According to my friends at affiliate stations, we shut things down in time to be safe and should be back up and running soon.”

Sources told The Record that the company’s autonomous system, AS397123, has also disappeared from the internet default-free zone as the company attempted to deal with the attack.

The attack follows what was described as the “biggest-ever” attack on an Australian media company earlier this year.

In March broadcaster Nine was forced to abandon its Sydney newsroom and revert to using whiteboards and moving production staff to other cities following a cyber-attack.

This article is republished from TVBEurope. 

Jenny Priestley

Jenny has worked in the media throughout her career, joining TVBEurope as editor in 2017. She has also been an entertainment reporter, interviewing everyone from Kylie Minogue to Tom Hanks; as well as spending a number of years working in radio. She continues to appear on radio every week and occasionally pops up on TV.