{"id":210695,"date":"2026-02-06T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:40:12","slug":"fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/","title":{"rendered":"FCC Issues Urgent Cyber-Security Alert to Broadcasters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/\">FCC Issues Urgent Cyber-Security Alert to Broadcasters<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/\">https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-06 10:40:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.michiganmedia.com\">www.michiganmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-58068\" src=\"https:\/\/growthzonecmsprodeastus.azureedge.net\/sites\/1735\/2022\/06\/FCC-300x300-1.jpg\" alt=\"FCC logo\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1735\/2022\/06\/FCC-300x300-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1735\/2022\/06\/FCC-300x300-1-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" data-eio=\"l\"\/>On Friday (1\/30), the FCC issued a Public Notice strongly urging broadcasters to implement immediate cybersecurity protections after a rise in ransomware attacks on small and mid-size communications companies.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><strong>This is not a routine advisory.<\/strong> The FCC is making clear that stations are expected to follow recognized cybersecurity best practices and that certain incidents may trigger\u00a0<strong>mandatory reporting<\/strong> to federal authorities.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Here is why this matters:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Ransomware can lock you out of automation, traffic, email, and critical files.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Attacks often begin with a single employee click or stolen credentials.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Recovery can take days or weeks and cost far more than the ransom itself.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If customer data or EAS systems are affected,\u00a0<strong>FCC reporting may be required within 24 hours.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Here are some simple actions you can take now to protect your team:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Turn on Multi-Factor Authentication for email, remote access, VPN, and cloud services.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Verify offline backups and test that you can restore from them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Update and patch operating systems, automation, and remote access tools.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Train staff to recognize phishing and social engineering emails.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Limit access privileges and segment office networks from on-air systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If you are hit by ransomware, you may need to report the incident:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">CPNI breach: report within\u00a0<strong>7 business days<\/strong>\u00a0via\u00a0www.cpnireporting.gov<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Network outage: FCC outage reporting rules apply<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Unauthorized EAS transmission: report to\u00a0<strong>FCCOPS@fcc.gov\u00a0within 24 hours<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Law enforcement resources:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you have experienced an incident or want help evaluating your current protections, contact us directly at\u00a0casey@michmab.com\u00a0or\u00a0dkelley@michmab.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">The full FCC Public Notice can be downloaded here for your engineering and IT teams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Protecting your operations protects your audience and our industry\u2019s credibility. Please treat this as a priority. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Thank you,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FCC Issues Urgent Cyber-Security Alert to Broadcasters https:\/\/www.michiganmedia.com\/2026\/02\/06\/fcc-issues-urgent-cyber-security-alert-to-broadcasters\/ Publish Date: 2026-02-06 10:40:00 Source Domain: www.michiganmedia.com&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/growthzonecmsprodeastus.azureedge.net\/sites\/1735\/2022\/06\/FCC-300x300-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[30,25,57],"class_list":["post-210695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-breach","tag-phishing","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210697,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210695\/revisions\/210697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}