In a riveting twist during the Swahili bulletin on Citizen TV on Wednesday, January 3, chaos ensued as a mysterious hacker seized control of their broadcast machinery.
An insider revealed to the The Kenya Times that the unknown perpetrator plunged the anticipated news into a suspenseful 9-minute delay.
Further, according to the insider’s account, the hacker began to command the machine used to run stories on air within what is commonly known as the “gallery” in broadcast language.
At the time, viewers who were tuned in for the news bulletin could only see a cursor moving on their screens for about nine minutes.
Also Read: How to Recover Your Hacked YouTube Channel
What Impact Did the Hackers Have on Citizen TV Bulletin
The hackers reportedly altered passwords of the machine making it challenging for Citizen TV IT team to take back control.
In addition, the Citizen TV team, caught off guard, struggled to identify the perpetrator.
They battled for control of the machine until around 7:08 PM when the IT team managed to reclaim the reins, allowing the bulletin to finally begin.
The anchor of the evening, Swaleh Mdoe, stepped into the spotlight with an apology to the viewers for the delay.
Additionally, he acknowledged that there was a technical hiccup that had momentarily prevented the bulletin from going on as scheduled.
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He also introduced the sign language interpreter Yula Nzale.
Earlier Cases of Hacking
In a seperate incident in March 2022, Citizen TV lost its YouTube account to hackers, a group running a digital currency known as Cryptocurrency.
They took over the channel which at the time had over three million subscribers and renamed it as Ethereum (US).
Also, the hackers went live and started streaming a discussion about digital currency leaving most Citizen TV online viewers in shock.
However, Citizen TV managed to regain control of its channel, recovering all its content on the page.
In recent years, several media houses have fallen victim to hacking causing them to lose viewers and other times online following.
In July 2023, the Kenyan government also fell prey to hacking after a hacking group calling itself Anonymous Sudan, attacked the e-citizen platform, taking it down for several hours.
Notably, the move paralyzed many public services needed by members of the public.
