WHIZ in the midst of recovery from a cyber attack

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Back in October, you may have noticed that our radio stations were just static and our ability to broadcast live programs on tv was also halted, all because of a cyber-attack.

The attack disabled our entire network which left us without emails, the ability to call in and out of the station, and we temporarily lost access to our saved footage. WHIZ Station Manager Bob Backman explains what it took for us on Broadcast Hill to get things back on track.

“Well, it takes a couple of things. The first thing is everybody at the station, I mean everybody, pulled together. Because, basically, what we were doing was reconstructing a station that was just a shell of a building and we had to insert and install and create every system from scratch. Everything,” Backman said. “And it’s remarkable to me how fast they’ve been able to recover but it’s still a lot of work ahead. It’s a lot of work.”

Since the cyber-attack on Oct. 12, WHIZ has all three radio stations back on the air and our email system is accessible and back online but our phone lines are still down at the time of reporting.

“The thing is we’re trying really, really hard because our viewers, our listeners, our advertisers are the most important thing. And we have to serve them the best way we can. We’re only human but we’re working as hard as we possibly can,” Backman said.

WHIZ would like to thank our tv viewers and our radio listeners who have stood by us while we are are still in recovery.