back to article ISIS: You bomb us, we’ll interrupt your TV transmissions

TV5Monde was prevented from broadcasting last night, and claims to still be working on a return to its regular programming schedule, after "hackers" interrupted its transmissions for a couple of hours. The signal jammers claimed affiliation with ISIS and took to the French broadcaster's social media accounts to spam the world …

  1. hplasm
    Coat

    "Yves Bigot, "

    "...the network director,.."

    Ah- they are the target of the cyberclowns, right there...

  2. ravenviz Silver badge

    Max Headroom should be on all the time!

  3. Spaceman Spiff

    Every system is vulnerable

    The only issue is finding the vulnerability. That Ericsson had denied any responsibility is absurd on its face! Security has to be designed in, not added on...

  4. James O'Shea

    yes, and?

    I've seen TV5Monde. (Well, actually, TV5Quebec. Same thing.) Those script kiddies deserve a medal and a bacon sandwich for knocking it off the air.

    See further the current line-up for TV5 in the US (I couldn't get online access to TV5Quebec for some reason, and really can't be arsed to find out why) http://www.tv5monde.com/cms/USA/p-29774-s-z-lg3-TV5Monde-Etats-unis.htm

    Warning: they want to dump cookies on your system and are excessively French about it.

    Hey, ISIS scripters... do y'all take requests? I've got a long list of tv channels which really should face the Wrath of the Desert Scripter. And, as a reward, I've got some nice pix of Muhammed and a big plate of bacon sandwiches for y'all. Have at it.

    1. bpfh
      Pint

      Re: yes, and?

      I don't think ISIS would really want a bacon sarnie....

      On that subject, one of the guys in our French office who used to work in London (and is Muslim) spent several weeks petitionniong our local kebab joint to upgrade their kebab meat to crispy fried bacon. Now that would be a thursday night kebab to hammer.

      Beer. As tonight is beer night. Like most thursdays.

    2. stucs201
      Pint

      Re: yes, and?

      Be generous: get them a pint and a bag of scratchings too.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: yes, and?

      "I've seen TV5Monde. (Well, actually, TV5Quebec. Same thing.) Those script kiddies deserve a medal and a bacon sandwich for knocking it off the air."

      That's a very unfair judgement. You obviously haven't seen the FTA shite we french get here. TV5 Monde is actually largely decent vs. this, and is even grand when you're working in countries where there's no TV to speak of. I was in Qatar last year and I can tell you I was all joy whenever the hotel had it.

  5. Magani
    Mushroom

    ISIS action...

    ... is just slightly more than "I fart in your general direction." then?

    Is there a hint of elderberries around here?

  6. Irongut

    Were their turtle necks black or slightly darker black?

    1. Captain Obvious

      Yes they were black and...

      What difference does it make?

      Will be curious to see how many get the movie reference :)

  7. dorsetknob
    Paris Hilton

    Not a great loss to the viewing public Its a french TV station

    Paris cos i'd Sooner watch her Broadcasts

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @dorsetknob

      Compared with idiotic American TV shows (try watching overweight girls choosing their wedding gown, those boring fake trials, worst driver, survivor sagas etc.), I'll take TV5 programs any time especially when I'm looking for some world news presented from a different point of view than what's on the menu of US agenda. Please note I'm neither English or French, I'm just pretty much bilingual and at an equal distance from both cultures.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The only good...

    ...terrorists is a very dead terrorists.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The only good...

      You seem to have misspelled "deputy leader of the Northern Ireland Assembly" somehow.

  9. Me19713

    What the Ericsson Rep Really Said

    "The Register asked Ericsson whether its upgrades may have introduced vulnerabilities to the broadcast platform, but the telecoms giant categorically denied it had anything to do with it."

    Actually, he/she probably said something along the lines of, "God. I hope not." :-)

  10. Mark 85

    Upgrade the air strikes...

    Start using bacon bombs and ham grenades.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Upgrade the air strikes...

      Fuck no! Don't want to be wasting bacon on those twunts. Use the lips, trotters and arseholes hosed from the abattoir floor. This will have the dual benefit of insulting terrorist dickbags and stopping $manufacturer making "sausages" out of it.

      1. MrDamage Silver badge

        Use the lips, trotters and arseholes....

        But what will the yanks use for hotdogs at the baseball games?

        You know, those things they eat to get the rancid taste of what they dare call beer out of their mouths.

        1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: Use the lips, trotters and arseholes....

          Have a pint o fthe very best on me sir!

        2. Mark 85

          Re: Use the lips, trotters and arseholes....

          We already did use those.... the result was elected... I won't get into which office as the NSA might either take offense or have a good laugh.

    2. JustWondering

      Re: Upgrade the air strikes...

      Send over Susan Boyle to let them see what a virgin looks like.

      1. Steven Raith

        Re: Upgrade the air strikes...

        JustWondering - I'm ashamed to state that I laughed like a drain at your comment about Boyle.

        I'm a bad man, and luckily, I'm working from home today so I've not had to explain myself to anyone...

  11. Anonymous Blowhard

    Knowing France

    There are probably very serious penalties for this sort of thing; like "carrying Marine Le Pen's handbag for a month" or "being crushed under Gérard Depardieu's drinks cabinet".

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CyberCaliphate, CyberSecurity, etc

    ...anyone calling themselves 'Cyber-anything' these days deserves to FAIL. The '90s are long gone.

    1. Fungus Bob

      Re: CyberCaliphate, CyberSecurity, etc

      And for the AC who likes American TV less than French TV, CSI Cyber...

  13. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward

    dear, oh dear, El Reg

    "The earliest known broadcast signal intrusion dates back to 1977, when an audio message purporting to come from outer space was broadcast on ITN."

    Please try and research before publishing, ever heard of Aspidistra? British counter intelligence was rather proficient at intruding/hijacking/emulating German domestic broadcasts during WW2. When an enemy air-raid was imminent both sides would silence all localised radio transmitters to prevent their use for direction finding. But we had a rather large (in fact the largest in the world) frequency agile transmitter in the sussex woods that would, within milliseconds, open up on whatever channel the Germans had just switched off and broadcast some confusing "grey" propaganda. "This is a false air-raid alarm, please go about your business as normal" kind of thing, or "ignore any messages you hear on other radio stations, the enemy have hijacked our frequencies"

    It was by all accounts, rather successful, though I am sure broadcast hijacking happened even before then.

    1. Mage Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: dear, oh dear, El Reg

      I'm sure they were thinking of TV.

      You are quite correct about WWII domestic Radio.

      As Domestic Radio only started about 1922, any WWI tomfoolery would have been military.

      Interference though on commercial Morse from other commercial stations and "Amateurs" was common enough from 1900s to 1914.

      Sales of radio kits to public to listen to time signals and commercial radio telegraph traffic was from about 1912, about 10 years before scheduled public voice broadcasts.

  14. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    1977? Earlier

    No, earlier.

    Terrestrial TV transmitters when they lost signal feed briefly look "off air" at previous TX mast in the system.

    Before 1976, a guy in an a van in Japan with VTR on a hill top waited till close down and kept most of the chain up with his porn.

    The BBC had an incident in 1970s were they closed earlier than RTE. The newish RTE transmitter in Longford was on same channel as a Scottish transmitter. Divis, outside Belfast, of course retransmitted RTE till their close down. I don't remember which year it was. Perhaps 1976 or 1977 or 1978. But the Japanese incident was earlier.

    Broadcasters added security after these incidents.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    clowns

    There is nothing wrong with your reality television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder (katie hopkins), we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer (the flumps), we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal (Katie Price). We will control the vertical (Katie Price). We can roll the image (Katie Price), make it flutter (Katie Price). We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity (Curved UHD bollocks). For the next few decades, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear (if you see it like advertisers, it's marketing, you think and feel what we want you to, if you don't it's off to the nut house for you soon). We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your mind control box. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the (shock and) awe and mystery which reaches from the inner idiot to – The US governments continued fucking about in the middle east and the worlds communications networks.

    I'm not a commie btw and I support no violence anywhere ever, I just think that at some point if they don't start listening to common sense it's going to be forced on them by their own people who have just about had enough of the constant bullshit on tv and the constant bullshit politicians speak... Apparently there's a club you can't speak of...

    Anyway who am I to judge/think/have a view of an ideal world.

  16. gon

    please provide a signal for our rf seeking missile

    as it says please can you idiots keep the jammer on for a bit longer please we didnt have time to get a lock... duh...... maybe they dont teach electronics in west london schools....

  17. JustWondering
    Facepalm

    No!!

    Not le TV!! These terrorists stick at nothing I tell you!

  18. Nuffnuff

    Like a Sir

    If you're talking radio, you can go back to 1903

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html

  19. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    Happy

    Fair enough.

    We bomb the Islamists' miserable Caliphate to bits, the Islamists block Fwench TV broadcasts. Personally, I see no problem with that arrangement.

  20. The First Dave

    "ISIS: You bomb us, we’ll interrupt your TV transmissions"

    Fair enough, I can live with that.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. Fair enough.

    Cough How about doing this to Sky by hacking their satellite uplink freq which is trivial to do with £900 worth of hardware and a H filled balloon with an autodetach payload and wipe system memory/etc if approached by jets /cough

    Yeah, Murdoch would probably deploy the nukes if someone did this, even if the outage was only an hour when every single satellite RX got reprogrammed to wipe out its firmware apart from "Emergency Broadcast Signal" .. yeah, total ownage.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like