Based out of Philadelphia, Entercom is the second-largest radio station in the United States. One of their programming machines was hacked recently and infected with ransomware in which the attackers are asking for a ransom of $500,000 USD. The infection expanded into email systems, music scheduling, production, billing, and shared network drives. This is causing difficulties such as stations having to create music logs manually as well as email and internet service outages. Printers operating on the server “MABOSPRINT” are nonoperational and employees are being asked to not connect company-owned laptops to their wired network, but computer systems that are not connected to the Active Directory are able to be used. Aside from all the issues, radio stations are still able to broadcast without interference. Inside sources have implied that the radio giant will not pay the ransom. “We are experiencing a disruption of some IT systems, including email. We apologize for any inconvenience and are working around the clock to resolve this issue,” stated Entercom in a public statement.
Analyst Notes
In order to prevent these attacks from happening, users should assure that all their software is up-to-date. Firewall protection and antivirus software should also be updated regularly. Some software even include a ransomware removal tool which will scan for and wipe any detections found on a user’s computer.
