Royal ransomware group claims Iowa PBS (TV) station attack

The Royal ransomware group claims it attacked Iowa PBS station, but did not say what files they stole. The Iowa PBS, told that in the early hours of November 20, Iowa PBS “became aware of suspicious activity” on its network systems. “We swiftly brought in systems experts to help us identify the issue,”.

“Iowa PBS’s ability to serve Iowans has not been affected. The broadcast, livestreams and digital platforms are still operational and Iowa PBS will continue to educate, inform, enrich and inspire Iowans.”

Iowa PBS representative said breach notification letters had been sent out but would not say how many people may have been affected and what kind of information was accessed during the cyberattack.

Security Advisor Dr Zakir Hussain said the media, entertainment and leisure sector skyrocketed to the top of the ransomware targets list. Recently many major media outlets has been witness Ransomware attacks including The U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, Nikkei Group — one of the world’s largest financial news outlets, Sinclair Broadcast, the operator of 185 TV stations, Heilbronner Stimme – the German newspaper, The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) – Grief claimed to have hacked the NRA exposing 13 papers apparently belonging to the group, Macmillan Publishers had experienced a cyber attack involving “the encryption of certain files” — almost certainly a ransomware incident — that prompted it to take all of its IT systems offline