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TechThe Weather Channel

Hackers Take The Weather Channel Off the Air

By
Chris Morris
Chris Morris
Former Contributing Writer
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By
Chris Morris
Chris Morris
Former Contributing Writer
Down Arrow Button Icon
April 18, 2019, 12:51 PM ET

People who tuned in to watch The Weather Channel’s AMHQ as they got ready Thursday morning didn’t find what they were looking for.

The cable channel was unable to broadcast live programming for a period due to a “malicious software attack,” it revealed both on air and on Twitter. Federal investigators are looking into the attack.

From 6am through 7:39am ET, the network was forced to run a taped episode of Heavy Rescue: 401.

pic.twitter.com/ovSgrgHxXY

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) April 18, 2019

The Weather Channel TV network is back live on the air to bring you the latest on today's severe weather threats. We appreciate everyone's patience this morning.

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) April 18, 2019

The outage comes on a day where severe thunderstorms are working their way through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alamaba, knocking out power to over 100,000 people.

The Weather Channel, which is facing a lawsuit related to storm chasers, did not offer details about which systems were infiltrated by the attackers.

Editor’s note: This story originally referred to a pending lawsuit against the Weather Channel app. That app has been run by a separate company since 2016.

About the Author
By Chris MorrisFormer Contributing Writer

Chris Morris is a former contributing writer at Fortune, covering everything from general business news to the video game and theme park industries.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

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