A cyber attack early on Thursday, the internal news system of RTVC yeThe editing system of the images is disabled. news, both editorial and audiovisual, as well as the possibility of accessing files. The pirates demand a large amount of money in exchange for leaving.
In an official emergency communication, the information services confirmed that “the programming of both television and radio and their social networks” was going to be “affected” for several hours and that the Systems Department was working to solve the problem. incidence as soon as possible.
However, sources from the entity already stated at night that it is possible that it will take “many days” and even “weeks” to recover normal emissions.
The entity relied on the territorial center of Tenerife, which is less affected than that of Gran Canaria
The attack affected the news production itself, so it proceeded to “readjust all programming to rely on programs from external production companies,” which have escaped being infected. However, both Telenoticias 1 and Telenoticias 2 were broadcast in their time slot, but for less duration than usual.
The top managers of RTVC, after an emergency meeting, decided to rely on the territorial center of Tenerifewhich was less affected than that of Gran Canaria and Canarias Radio itself, since the data center was blocked to prevent the virus from spreading.
Telemadrid and SER
This attack on the Canarian public television is not the only one that the media has suffered and joins the one that Telemadrid had last October, which saw its systems compromised for three hours and had to stop broadcasting live and place on the television schedule programs canned.
Also at the end of 2019, the SER network suffered what they officially called a “serious and widespread impact on all of its computer systems” due to a virus introduced by hackers, which led them to disconnect them for months, although it continued to broadcast from its headquarters. headquarters in Madrid with the help of autonomous teams.
Ransomwere attacks affect all terminals that use the same network
The National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe) ensures that in this type of cyberattacks Ransomware When a computer is infected by one of these viruses, it can affect other terminals connected to the same network and the user only sees a message requesting payment of a certain amount to regain access to the computer’s files.
In October, the Air Europa systems team confirmed the existence of a cybersecurity problem that affected payments for purchases through the web, which allowed the extraction of some data such as the card number, expiration date and the security code of an undetermined number of clients.
Cyberattacks in the Canary Islands
Last November, the national PSOE suffered a cyber attack on its website and a few weeks later the Canarian PSOE reported another attack on the servers used by the party for its internal videoconferences.
According to the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, one in three Canarian companies has suffered a cyber attack, and in the weeks prior to the Black Friday, Cyberattacks grew by 67% in the Canary Islands and a dozen island companies were victims of data theft.
Every day the Security Forces receive about 40 complaints from companies and citizens of the Islands who are victims of internet scammers and so far in 2023 the Canary Islands have suffered the highest number of cyber scams in history.
A study carried out by the Security Operations Center of the Government of the Canary Islands certified that in the first three months after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, all departments and dependent entities of the Autonomous Community suffered about 1,500 cyber attacks,
At the beginning of the year, the Cabildo of Tenerife also had to face the judicial investigation into four cases of fraud, through the method of phishing for an amount exceeding 818,000 euros committed between 2020 and 2022 in Titsa, Metropolitano de Tenerife, Balten and the IASS, where hackers used false bank logos and impersonated suppliers to request payment of invoices.
It is estimated that Spain suffers close to 30,000 cyber attacks a year, and SMEs are the target of seven out of ten of these attacks, since they do not have powerful security measures.
Perhaps the one that is most remembered is the one suffered by the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) in 2019, when a virus ransomware called Ryuk was released by the Russian band Grim Spider and managed to paralyze the activity of 710 of its in-person offices and 52 telematic ones.
