Radio’s digital transformation creating new cyber challenges, engineers say

Broadcast engineers are confronting a cyber landscape far different than the one they inherited a decade ago, as traditional air chains and isolated technical systems increasingly give way to IP-based infrastructure that brings new efficiencies — and new vulnerabilities.

That was one of the key messages during an FCC cybersecurity workshop last week where engineers and security executives warned that the industry’s modernization has created new openings for attacks that target stations, studio operations and critical broadcast infrastructure.

Wayne Pecena, associate director of engineering at KAMU-FM/TV in Waco-Temple-Bryant, Texas, said broadcasters have quietly become regular cyber targets — even if many incidents never become public.

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