American media conglomerate Cox Media Group (CMG) confirmed that it was hit by a ransomware attack that took down live TV and radio broadcast streams in June 2021.
The organization confirmed the attack in the data breach notification letters sent today through U.S Mail to over 800 affected individuals believed to have had their personal data revealed in the attack. The gang first alerted probably affected users of the incident through email on July 30.
“On 3rd of the June 2021, CMG experienced a ransomware incident in which a small percentage of servers in its network were encrypted by a malicious threat actor,” the broadcasting company said. “CMG discovered the incident on the same day, when CMG observed that some files were encoded and inaccessible.”
Personal Data Revealed, but not Hijacked
Coz Media Group urgently took down systems offline after the attack was analyzed and reported the incident to the FBI after initiating research with the help of external cybersecurity experts.
The media company discovered proof that the attackers accumulated personal information preserved on the hijacked systems. While they also tried to exfiltrate this information outside of CMG’s network, there is no clue that they were successful in their attempts.
CMG discovered no evidence of discovering attackers, fraud, or financial losses affected probably affected individuals deriving from this incident since the June ransomware attack.
Personal information exposed during the attack includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, health insurance information, health insurance policy numbers, medical condition information, medical diagnosis information, and online user credentials, stored for human resource management purposes.
Ransom Demand Neglected
“CMG did not pay a ransom or provide any funds to the threat actor as a result of this incident. There has been no observed malicious activity in CMG’s environment since June 3, 2021,” CMG added.
The organization has also received some steps to update its systems’ safety since the occurrence to detect and block avoids additional hijack attempts.
“These measures combine multi-factor authentication rules, delivering an enterprise-wide password reset, expanding additional endpoint exposure software, reimaging all end user devices, and restoring clean networks,” CMG explained.
CMG is a broadcasting, publishing, and digital media services company created by merging Cox Newspapers, Cox Radio, and Cox Television in 2008. Its transactions involve 33 television channels (including primary associates of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and MyNetworkTV), 65 radio stations, as well as larger than 100 news outlets.
