Radio Station Systems Held Hostage Twice In One Week

A local station in West Michigan fell victim to so-called ransomware, a worm implanted by hackers that freezes computer files and demands the computer user pay a large fee to unlock the files.

Jim Higgs, the owner and operator of WAKV in Plainwell, said the most recent infection occurred on Jan. 20, following a similar incident earlier in the month.

The latest attack affected a business computer. The previous incursion put his on-air computer out of commission, so the oldies music station had to stop broadcasting.

“I came downstairs to get something and the on-air monitor was off,” he said. “I came in here, total silence.”

He went to click on a song and got an error message. When he tried to open a file, it was just crazy symbols, and then -- “I noticed this icon on my desktop that said basically if you want your files back pay us $500,” said Higgs. 

More than 4,000 songs, his personal financial data, and 20 years’ worth of pictures were inaccessible. 

Higgs refused to pay. He still has most of his files on an old computer he was about to wipe clean.