Russian state-owned broadcaster hit by large cyberattack

Russian state-owned broadcaster, the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, has fallen victim to an “unprecedented” cyberattack, state-affiliated news outlet Gazeta.ru reported on Monday, citing a source.

The cyberattack led to flagship TV channels Russia 1 and Russia 24 becoming unavailable online. As of 2pm on Monday, the channels’ online live streams remained inaccessible.

An anonymous pro-Ukrainian hacker group, Sudo-rm-RF, has claimed responsibility for the attack, RBC-Ukraine wrote. The same group was reportedly behind an attack on the Moscow Technical Inventory Bureau containing citizens’ real estate data in August 2023.

“Russian state TV has been hit by an unprecedented cyberattack,” a source told Gazeta.ru, adding that the attack affected online broadcasting and the company’s internal services. “This is going to take some time. I’ve heard the servers have been wiped, including backups,” the source said. “The problem, as I understand it, is very serious,” the source said.

St. Petersburg newspaper Fontanka said that despite the TV channels being unavailable online, digital broadcasting was working as normal.

Lithuania-based Russian journalist Alexander Plyushchev, citing a source, wrote that “Russia 1’s entire news complex … had been down since 5am. The central controller and all the servers are out.” Plyushchev added that reporters had relocated to the Shabolovka broadcasting tower in Moscow, which is used by the state broadcaster.

The broadcaster confirmed the cyber attack, but said the hackers “had not caused major disruption” to their work. It said that specialists were working to fix any problems.

The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, which was founded in 1990 and is based in Moscow, operates many of the country’s best-known TV and radio channels.