A cyber attack destroys the highest Slovenian TV station
The cyber attack disrupted the operation of Pop TV, the most popular Slovenian television channel, in an incident this week, which was allegedly an attempt at extortion.
The attack, which occurred on Tuesday, affected the Pop TV computer network and prevented the company from showing any computer graphics for the evening edition of 24UR, the station’s daily news program.
The nightly edition of the same show was completely canceled, although a truncated version of the news was broadcast on the company’s website, Pop TV in statement on tuesdayday of the attack.
But while newscasts resumed by the next day, the attack also affected other parts of the network’s operations.
V second statement Pop TV said Wednesday that the attack also affected some of its web servers, including VOYO, an on-demand streaming platform that offers its parent company’s channels, along with licensed movies and TV series.
The company said the attack prevented its staff from adding new content to the platform and streaming any of its channels and live sports events, such as the Winter Olympics, angering many paid subscribers.
Local news reports an attempted blackmail
A 24UR spokesman did not return a request for comment asking for details on the nature of the event, but a neighbor, the Slovenian News Agency Zurnal24 reported that Pop TV was blackmailed by foreign hackers in an attack that looks like ransomware.
The Slovenian team for computer emergencies SI-CERT issued a statement also confirmed that he had cooperated with the TV station to combat the attack, but declined to provide any other details.
In the last few years, cyber attacks have affected several major television stations, including French M6 (October 2019), Time channel (April 2019), Cox Media Group (June 2021), Sinclair Broadcast Group in the US (October 2021), Portuguese SIC (January 2021) and Iranian IRIB (February 2021).
Excluding the IRIB incident, most of the blackmail attacks affected the back-office IT infrastructure of the stations, leaving broadcasts disconnected for hours while engineers worked to restore systems, meaning Pop TV shut down easier than most previous cases.