Like they care about floods.
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This is no surprise. Every time someone calls me to say “I opened something and I don’t think it was real” my heart always sinks. It doesn’t matter how many times I train people what to look for they still fall for some of them anyway. Thankfully, so far, it hasn’t ever been anything serious and the rest of my systems have done their job properly.
Still, I’m dreading the day something like this happens to one of my clients. One can only prepare so much but the end users will always be the weakest link.
I am curious how this started and hopefully Nine will say what it was once this is all over. Was it someone opening a dodgy attachment? Did someone fall victim to a phishing scam and enter a valid login? Was it an unpatched server vulnerability of some sort? The fact it was able to take down everything that it did suggests a high level of access.
Centralisation and having everything linked has its benefits but putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. If something happens in Sydney it shouldn’t affect the other states like it has.
As with everything some good will come of this. Nine will come up with some better contingency plans for when shit hits the fan. If Melbourne had finished all of their automation then they may not have been able to carry everything from there. They need a better plan B going forward.
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It appears it may have nothing to do with anyone opening up a link in an email, as has been speculated on this thread.
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I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Unless it was a hardware or software vulnerability then they still need a way in to the network. That article says what may have happened but not how it got there in the first place.
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Exactly.
E-mail is always going to be a danger, especially in a news gathering organisation.
I’m just imagining an e-mail coming in at a busy time, appearing to be from a trusted sender…
Once malware is on one computer in the network, other security vulnerabilities could be used to spread and to elevate permissions from normal user to admin, then it can do its damage.
As others have said, hopefully this is a catalyst not just for Nine but others to spend more on IT security, try to avoid a repeat and prepare for when this next happens.
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This morning
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As Seven found out in 2005 when BCM had some power issues…
I’m sure lessons were learned. I’m not sure of what changed as a result of that but it hasn’t happened again that I’m aware of.
Nine’s issues are far more serious and will take longer to resolve. Once ransomware is discovered you can no longer trust anything connected to the network. Each device needs to be looked at closely and they need to be sure it’s clean before reconnecting it. One slip up can set off the whole thing again.
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Yep, and that person is clearly an experienced editor when they’re using the track pad like that.
They may be using it to clip up rushes before moving them to an edit suite, but it wouldn’t be used as a network wide solution.
Their mobile data bills are going to be pretty big this month if they’re using hotspots like that…
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Be interesting to see if Nine’s woes were down to a Windows crypto attack or something else. Recent tech job ads I have seen them post have had Apple and Linux skills on the wishlist so I did get the impression they weren’t a big Microsoft shop. The news coverage of the intrusion does make it sound like a Windows crypto job though.
That photo clearly shows both Windows & MacOS; no surprise there’d be some Linux around too, and I’d be shocked if they tried to eliminate Windows.
Ransomware exists for all those OSs.
Security is difficult and only getting more so.
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That’s because their usual suites are down.
Nine has a nation-wide deal with Telstra to provide essentially unlimited data on mobile hotspots, Dejeros and LiveU boxes plus other devices like work phones and station internet etc. They have smaller-scale deals with Optus and Vodafone if Telstra reception is poor on Dejero but not ideal.
Telstra also does quite a bit of the technical side of things in the local stations themselves.
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Maybe for the news component but I doubt people in other areas who don’t have company phones will be benefiting from that. They would likely be using their own.
He isn’t using a phone in that shot?
High data bills or not, I doubt it’s Channel 9’s main concern right now.
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Is it conceivable that there is some flow on effect and that this outage is affecting Seven somehow as well - through sharing of resources? Queensland missed out on live coverage of a major news conference this morning from Seven and Nine. And now in Canberra the PM is announcing a cabinet reshuffle and there’s nothing from Seven or Nine. I thought this would have been a given for Seven - if only to get ahead of Nine. It was shown live on ABC and 10.
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It was slightly tongue in cheek.
That small black box behind the laptop is a mobile hotspot - mostly pre-mobile phone hotspot technology.
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Yep!
Phone hotspots speeds are dreadful though. I would rather use a hotspot modem as it can output much faster speeds than a phone.
9 Local News will still be airing at 5.30, however the story intros will be prerecorded apparently.
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