Hackers Silence Online Stream Of KQED Radio

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – Bay Area radio station KQED was hit by hackers, who reportedly knocked out the station's online radio stream for hours.

Employees say they were told to stay off their computers Friday while officials investigate the attack.

Things are very quiet inside KQED right now.

We're told most senior staff have left for the day - their work hampered by the lack of network connection - and only IT staff remain to try and solve the problem.

In a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle, communications manager Brenda Tucker had this to say about the apparent hack:

"KQED observed suspicious activity late Thursday afternoon on several computers on the IT network. Our broadcast operations, TV and radio, were not affected and we have been on the air without interruption. We had an outage on the radio live stream from Thursday evening to 9:30 this morning. This was the only issue that affected our services to the public."

A statement was tacked up next to doors and elevators inside KQED on Friday afternoon.

It reads: "Network security issue. Do not use your PC or turn it off or on. Contact your manager. All network and wifi services are off until further notice."

It's unknown at this point if this was a ransomware attack -- much like recent attacks around the globe -- and if so whether KQED paid the ransom.