A Russian criminal organization called BlackMatter has created a big mess for Marketron. The company alerted radio partners via email that it had been the victim of a cyber attack, creating nationwide problems for the company’s customers.
In a note to radio clients, CEO Jim Howard said the company made recent investments to separate backup and disaster recovery in different physical and network environments. In doing so, “zero trust” access management policy was created, and was supposed to provide new security detection and recovery tools. The attackers though still found a way to overcome the company’s modifications. Marketron has yet to determine how the hackers exploited their network.
Howard apologized for the issue and acknowledged that the company is communicating with both BlackMatter and the FBI. Marketron says they are working on the issue and hoping to restore systems as quickly as possible. Once everything is back to normal they’ll provide an update to client stations.
Marketron is a leading provider of enterprise revenue and profitability management solutions for the media industry. They supply revenue generation and management solutions, ad tech and mobile advertising platforms, and an array of digital audience engagement tools to help drive new growth opportunities. Given their large footprint in the radio industry, it’s safe to say a number of groups and stations will be affected today.
