Program recording at seven in the morning. Even at eight. At nine o’clock, more of the same. Only after ten o’clock did Telemadrid manage to broadcast its planned program, with great difficulty and as the Madrid public broadcaster’s communications director, Inmaculada Durán, admitted:
—Good morning, Madrid. It’s ten past eight and as you saw there wasn’t the usual program.
This is how the journalist Laura Gómez began the program. “This morning we suffered a computer attack that affected everyone in this house and made it impossible for us to meet our appointment on time. “Our teams are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible and return to normality.”
During these three hours, pre-prepared programs were broadcast: the program “Madrid from the air” and “Ruta 179”. The attack completely disrupted the daily work of all employees of the public broadcaster. According to Durán, no one can turn on their computer. “We don’t have much more information,” he admits. “At the moment we are still affected by the effects of the cyber attack, but we have managed to transmit via fiber without anything being connected to the network. We carry the backpacks that are sitting outside on the street because pictures and files can be sent. We all work by hand. Anything related to daily and scheduled broadcasting is not possible. What was hacked is the system. “We don’t know when it can be resolved.”
🔴 Telemadrid is the victim of a malicious cyberattack, but has already been able to restore its live broadcast.
👨💻The TeleMadrid website is currently not operational. pic.twitter.com/q9VbDSpR9F
— Telemadrid (@telemadrid) October 6, 2023
Onda Madrid, the public radio station, also had the same problem, but was able to broadcast without interruptions. However, the editorial team cannot work with the computer. The cyber attack is still visible on the Internet, which cannot be updated since yesterday morning.
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More cases of cyber attacks in Spain
In Spain there have been recent very high-profile cases, such as the hacker attack on Prosegur in 2020 or the one that forced the suspension of local programs on the SER network (the PRISA group) due to a ransomware attack in the same year. a file encryptor that also affected the consulting firm Everis; or the one that infected the Torrejón de Ardoz University Hospital, rendering its computers and waiting room screens unusable (and forcing its staff to revert to pencil and paper).
José Luis Narbona, associate professor of criminology at the University of Alcalá and president of the National Cybersecurity Association, recalled in an EL PAÍS report three years ago that he did not want to sound alarmist, but that Spain was light years away from what was needed Investment and awareness on this issue. “It all starts with an economic problem and has turned into a global war,” he said. “The increase in attacks on Spanish companies is quite high and inversely proportional to the effort they put into ensuring the confidentiality of the data.”
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