Russia’s state media company All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), which owns and operates Russia’s main national TV channels, including Rossia 1 and Rossia 24, as well as several regional TV and radio stations, has been the victim of an unprecedented cyber-attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, the 7th of October, saying that specialists were working intensively to identify the culprit, reports Reuters and Politico.
VGTRK said its online services were hit by a cyber-attack overnight and were disrupted, but that radio and TV broadcasts were operating normally despite the attack.
“Our state media company, one of the largest, has faced an unprecedented hacker attack on its digital infrastructure,” Peskov told reporters, noting that VGTRK was working to eliminate the consequences of the attack.
Peskov said that “specialists are working to clarify all the circumstances” and to understand who was responsible for the attack against a “critical infrastructure facility”.
The press service of the Russian state broadcaster admitted that the company had been the target of a hacking attack but said that “no significant damage has been caused to the activities of the media company”.
The VGTRK has not provided further comment.
The state news portal Gazeta.ru reported that the Ukrainian-linked hacker group “sudo rm -RF” was behind the attack.
Kremlin: Russian state media company hit by unprecedented cyber attack
