Russian TV has been hacked with the message ‘the blood of thousands of
Ukrainians and hundreds of their children is on your hands’.
The hack came as Russians prepared to watch the annual Victory Day military parade on
Red Square presided over by Vladimir Putin on Monday, May 9.
‘No to War’ message also was seen on the screen as well as ‘TV and the authorities lie’ as
it appeared on schedules and programmes including children’s TV shows, affecting viewers across the country.
It impacted online viewers of various channels transmitted by MTS mobile operator, NTV Plus, Rostelecom, and Wink.
One parent in Tyumen, Siberia, said: ‘The [TV] provider “delighted” my child with such a message on children’s channels,
and then it turned out that the same thing happened on the other channels.
‘The message appears in the description of any programme.’
The hack also hit Russian defence ministry channel TV Zvezda for viewers accessing via Yandex search engine.
‘A cyberattack was carried out on Russian TV broadcasting channels, because of which subscribers could
have extremist inscriptions in the broadcast grid,’ said MTS in Siberia.
‘Now our IT specialists are promptly eliminating the consequences of the hack so that subscribers can
receive services and watch TV programs and movies as quickly as possible.’
A viewer called Olga Ivanova said: ‘I have NTV Plus satellite TV and the same s*** is happening there on every channel.’
She said: ‘It is not on all MTS channels but on many for several hours
‘I switched on TV at 7am, it was already like that, switched off only at 11.’
The source of the attack in support of Ukraine was not immediately clear.
Former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak said: ‘
At night and in the morning, residents of Russia who wanted to watch festive TV program stumbled upon such messages.
‘At least [those who use] MTS, NTV-plus, Rostelecom, and Wink
My question is, over exactly. Whose head will fly off his shoulders?’
One source claimed: ‘This is a built-in player in smart TV…. there’s a Ukrainian code.
A manipulation is taking place.
‘In my Samsung, he has been replacing some IPTV channels with central Russian
ones for a long time and is chasing Ukrainian propaganda.’
