Each station was hacked by the same individual triggering their Emergency Alert System devices, causing them to break from regular programming to air a video/audio/text notice (usually this is done during Tornado Warnings or Hurricane/Tropical Storm Warnings as they make landfall) of zombies waking from their graves and invading the viewing areas (a reference to The Walking Dead). Ultimately, the Federal Communication Commission found the stations liable for the broadcast intrusion because they did not adequately secure and encrypt their systems from unauthorized remote access.
This is unlike when WGN-TV and WTTW-TV in Chicago were hacked in 1987 they were found to not be liable, as there was no faulty/hacked devices, just someone overpowering the station's radio signal with their own, at the transmitter. So, the answer to the question "are KIFT and KXAX-LP going to be held responsible for this?" is "MAYBE." It's all up to the FCC. Whoever did this is certainly going to be held liable, of course, but broadcast and cable/satellite television stations must have secure facilities.
In the past (though as recently as the early 2000s), most stations used either direct cable links for their Studio-Transmitter Link, though many also employ direct microwave links using the top edge of the UHF band (around 960-1140 MHz) or the High Frequency Band (20-45 MHz, around and just above where Shortwave and Citizens Band Radio are used). In addition, most stations encrypted their analog audio feeds at the studio and decrypt them at the transmitter, though analog encryption is still fairly simple and easy to hack. With TELEVISION, the switch to digital operations rendered this sort of intrusion far more difficult (instead of an analog feed, it's digital, and given robust encryption).
We're obviously not done with this story, so I'll be updating at least once more, with a follow-up from KHOU 11.
I think I should explain things a bit further here, because technical stuff like this can be confusing. On February 11, 2013, there was a similar broadcast signal intrusion event at FOUR television stations across the United States: WBUP (ABC 10) and WNMU (Northern Michigan University PBS) in Marquette, Michigan, KENW PBS in Portales, New Mexico, and Great Falls, Montana's KRTV (CBS/Montana Television Network).
Each station was hacked by the same individual triggering their Emergency Alert System devices, causing them to break from regular programming to air a video/audio/text notice (usually this is done during Tornado Warnings or Hurricane/Tropical Storm Warnings as they make landfall) of zombies waking from their graves and invading the viewing areas (a reference to The Walking Dead). Ultimately, the Federal Communication Commission found the stations liable for the broadcast intrusion because they did not adequately secure and encrypt their systems from unauthorized remote access.
This is unlike when WGN-TV and WTTW-TV in Chicago were hacked in 1987 they were found to not be liable, as there was no faulty/hacked devices, just someone overpowering the station's radio signal with their own, at the transmitter. So, the answer to the question "are KIFT and KXAX-LP going to be held responsible for this?" is "MAYBE." It's all up to the FCC. Whoever did this is certainly going to be held liable, of course, but broadcast and cable/satellite television stations must have secure facilities.
In the past (though as recently as the early 2000s), most stations used either direct cable links for their Studio-Transmitter Link, though many also employ direct microwave links using the top edge of the UHF band (around 960-1140 MHz) or the High Frequency Band (20-45 MHz, around and just above where Shortwave and Citizens Band Radio are used). In addition, most stations encrypted their analog audio feeds at the studio and decrypt them at the transmitter, though analog encryption is still fairly simple and easy to hack. With TELEVISION, the switch to digital operations rendered this sort of intrusion far more difficult (instead of an analog feed, it's digital, and given robust encryption).
We're obviously not done with this story, so I'll be updating at least once more, with a follow-up from KHOU 11.
~ The Legendary RingtailedFox