Nine Technical Issues -- March & April 2021

That would be programming. Not news. Believe all news content is basically unavailable at the moment.

This will definitely only be a short term measure, until their systems are restored. No doubt they will have lost raw material from the last few weeks/months, but most of their news archives will have off site backups that will be unaffected.
If they don’t, then their IT department should be sacked.

Deals can be struck with ABC, ATN and TEN if they need to source vision desperately.

Imho it also doesn’t justify the copyright infringement of people “archiving” stuff on YouTube for them - they were right to go on that blitz, they have to maintain responsibility for their content.

Other than pooling vision, the networks wouldn’t be able to ‘help’ like that (i doubt they’d even want to). It would be against anti competition laws.

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Bruce Gyngell himself told me the story in 1983 … when TCN9 started, Frank Packer told Bruce to telerecord (to 16mm film) “something every week” … Bruce told me he thought it was a dumb idea, but did it anyway … as the first anniversary of the launch came up in 1957, Packer told him to make a one-year special using all of the footage he had diligently kept … for that special they re-made the “Good Evening and Welcome To Television” bit that, of course, had not been recorded on the day … Gyngell is often credited with 9’s far superior historical archive, but he admitted to me that it was Frank Packer who, as a newspaperman, recognised the value of a comprehensive archive, and was really the man responsible …

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… I think you’re confusing raw camera tapes/discs/files and ingested/edited packages …

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… no it wouldn’t and it’s done all the time …

In what form?

… that stopped in the early 90s when the ABC was attempting to set up its own Pay TV operation and suddenly realised that historical material was worth dollars … a bigger problem at the ABC was not that material was being destroyed but that there were no proper records of where it was kept and the corporation was relying on the memories of the “old hands” and a few cards in boxes to find stuff …

Commercial LPs, not ABC recordings.

If the archives are lost, that means broadcast systems have been exposed to the internet (either directly or indirectly) and that is a very very bad idea.

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It might be that the archive database itself was exposed, if so, searching for archive materials will be very difficult…

That’s possible. It’s not currently accessible on the AP Archive website.

http://www.aparchive.com/partner/Nine%20Network%20Australia

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Iran’s nuclear centrifuges were damaged by Stuxnet, despite not being connected to the Internet at all.

Once crypto-malware gets in, on someone’s computer, it can attack anything and everything that computer can connect to, and expecting a media company to not be connected to the Internet is unrealistic.
So many needed systems, including externally-provided resources, are on the Internet.

Relying on a firewall between your network and the Internet is no longer enough.
Regular updating of systems, multi-factor authentication, anti-virus & anti-malware, they help but often still won’t stop new & unknown malware, or security software is overly-sensitive (with false-positives) and blocks legitimate activities.

Getting it (& that balance) right is very difficult, and while security needs to get it right every time, the attackers only need one failure to get in.

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… however, critical broadcast infrastructure shouldn’t need to be anywhere near the internet and it’s really poor design that 9’s apparently is … I realise that this is a world away, but these days I’m retired but run a couple of small FM radio stations to keep me occupied … although I’m connected to the internet talking to you right now and I’m connected to the internet when I download music and other files, my actual on-air PC that contains all the software and files that keeps a signal going to air is not and never has been connected … that’s the way that you ensure that you stay on air …

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No 5pm news today (In Sydney and Melbourne at least) despite it being advertised with Tipping Point running in its place.

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Just a question: If this hack has been so bad for channel 9 why has there not been more reported about it? Is it a security risk thing?

Tipping Point only aired for half an hour? As Getaway is currently on (assuming from its advertised 5.30pm slot). A shame the national news wasn’t on.

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It ran from 4:30-5:30pm. The Garden Gurus was on half an hour earlier at 4pm.

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No idea. I wonder how much of an investigation is going on, or if it’s been decided instead get things restored ASAP (which I suppose could destroy some evidence).

I wouldn’t judge yet; it’s only been mere days, and it may be months before an investigation is complete & they’re ready to announce the results.

Well is it? NPC is separate, and apparently still working OK.

9News (& Nine’s corporate network) is another matter; any newsgathering organisation has to be connected to the Internet, and probably most vulnerable because of the urgency/real-time nature of news, beyond just tight deadlines.

And look at how many corporate applications & systems are now externally hosted, and accessed over the Internet.

Imagine being a security person even a few weeks ago trying to suggest disconnecting from the Internet? The negatives would be huge, and management (of pretty much any company) would take the risk (as well as probably underestimating it, perhaps because of a lack of technical understanding, & especially if looking for efficiencies/cuts to spending).

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Let’s put it this way - guess who’s got material for stage 6 computing classes! :wink:

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