Cybersafetyconnections November 13th, 2023, Vol#143 

  • From Konbriefing cyberattack on a media company, Rivers Media – Kingsport, Tennessee, USA (Sullivan County, Hawkins County). 
  • The cyber-attack affected some of their systems and took down their servers, phone systems and advertising systems. 
  • No cyber-criminal group has been identified as the responsible party for the cyber-attack. 
  • Steps taken by Six Rivers Media, LLC, to mitigate the loss include external and cloud servers.

What happened? 

Vintage Newspaper print free 

According to TimesNews Six Rivers Media, LLC, the largest media company in Northeast Tennessee, experienced a cyber-attack on their systems which took down all their servers, the phone system and advertising system. 

Who was impacted? 

The long slow crash of journalism 

Times News, the Press, the Erwin Record and the Jonesborough Herald & Tribune, were affected by the cyber-attack. 

Although the cyber-attack affected several systems within the company, the personal information of the customers remains protected. Ron Waite, the group publisher and Chief Operating Officer assured customers that all personal data was on an external server, and no data had been taken by the hackers. 

Despite the attack, customers would still be able to receive the print product, read stories online, and access the e-editions of the newspapers. The company had assured their customers that there should be no delays in deliveries. Only the classified ads and legal notices were not being processed, but the company was working hard to restore its systems to normalcy. 

Which cybercriminal group was responsible? 

Intenet Crimen Cibernetico 

No cybercriminal group has been identified as been responsible for this cyberattack. Ron Waite, the group publisher and Chief Operating Officer also believed that the attack was only a cyber-attack since no one tried to notify or contact them about any ransomware.  

How has Six Rivers Media, LLC mitigated the loss from cyberattack? 

Business Continuity and Resilence Planing 

  • The company is working tirelessly to restore all the systems, and they are grateful for the support and understanding of their customers during this time. 
  • Since Six Rivers Media, LLC, had proactively taken steps to host all personal data on an external server, Ron Waite, the group publisher and Chief Operating Officer assured customers that no personal data had been taken by the hackers.  
  • Several of Six Rivers Media, LLC, systems are cloud based and this has helped the company to continue to deliver its products. 
  • The cyberattack did not prevent Kingsport Times News and Johnson City Press from publishing newspapers on Monday after the attack. 
  • The Tomahawk, the newspaper of record in Mountain City, was not affected by the cyber-attack because it is hosted on an external server. 

Conclusion 

From the analysis, Six Rivers Media, LLC has been able to mitigate some of the loss from the cyberattack and continue to do business because some of its systems have been hosted on external servers and some are cloud based.

An important cybersecurity posture is having back up of data as well and I did not read anywhere in the story where there was back of data apart from external serves and cloud storage. 

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