Russian Hackers Replace Latvian TV Broadcast with Propaganda

Russian hackers compromised the TV transmission in Latvia and replaced the official program with Russian Victory Day images for a small number of viewers.

Taking over the TV transmission in any country is not an easy feat, and it remains unclear how the hackers of Russian Order is One (Русский Порядок Един) managed it. According to a Hackread report, some people who were trying to watch the regular news in Latvia were instead presented with a recording from a military parade in Russia. This all happened on May 9, the day Russia celebrated as the 79th anniversary of Victory Day and the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Eastern Front of World War II.

It turns out that Balticom broadcaster was the victim of a cyberattack, temporarily prompting it to lose control. What's interesting about this particular attack is that the Balticom's infrastructure wasn't not actually compromised.

The attackers went after a TV server hosted in Bulgaria, although it's still unclear how they took over the infrastructure in Bulgaria. Authorities said that only 5% of Balticom's subscribers were affected.

“This incident is related to hybrid warfare, which is not only directed against us, but Balticom in this particular case, is simply a tool. All our IT specialists are currently working on solving the problem. We have contacted the Cert service, the State Security Service and the administration of the NEPLP have also been involved very quickly," said Balticom CEO Anastasija Muizniece.

Cert.lv, the Information Technology Security Incident Response Institution of the Republic of Latvia, is leading the investigation.

"Cert.lv is investigating the incident and is still awaiting information from the host of the Balticom server. This supplier provides this IP television service to several operators in other countries. And now they are investigating and checking what happened and how it was hacked," a Cert.lv spokesperson told LSM.