Channel 9 cyber attack: Karl Stefanovic pokes fun at Vladimir Putin

Paper scripts, scribbled drawings for graphics and dead air is how the Today show kicked off as Nine deals with a cyber attack.

Channel 9 is scrambling to gain control of its news and production systems as the network deals with a cyber attack which has thrown the Today Show into chaos.

The breakfast program began on Monday morning with a lighthearted jab at the Russian President with host Karl Stefanovic declaring the show was attempting to “work around these technical issues caused by Vladimir [Putin]”.

Newsreader Alex Cullen was one of the first victims of the technical issues this morning during his 5.30 news.

Leila McKinnon shows off Karl Stefanovic’s “graphics” this morning. Picture: Channel 9

Stefanovic and McKinnon made fun of the situation on Monday. Picture: Channel 9

Cullen, who made a last-minute dash to Melbourne last night as hackers infiltrated Nine, lost contact with reporter Gabrielle Boyle, prompting an awkward moment of dead air where he said “I’ve just lost Gabby. My … headset. If someone can talk to me. I’ve lost Gabby.”

He was also forced to read off paper scripts rather than a teleprompter.

The hosts also showed their new “graphics department” which was scribbled drawings on a piece of paper.

The network was forced to broadcast its nightly Sydney news bulletin from Melbourne on Sunday after the cyber attack took Nine’s studios offline.

The company confirmed a cyber attack was to blame for the huge technical outage that prevented live programs — including the flagship news bulletin, the NRL Sunday Footy Show and Weekend Today — from going to air.

In a staff email last night, employees “in all markets” were told to “work from home until further notice”.

Richard Wilkins tweeted a photo from the studio on Sunday morning.

“There has been a cyber ­attack on our systems that has disrupted live broadcasts out of Nine Sydney,” the email read.

The attack meant Weekend Today host Richard Wilkins — who was among Sydney’s glamour set enjoying the Hamilton premiere on Saturday night — arrived bright and early yesterday, but was unable to present his show alongside co-host Rebecca Maddern and newsreader Jayne Azzopardi.

Instead, morning viewers were forced to sit through a re-run of the talk show Ellen followed by a Great Barrier Reef nature special narrated by Russell Crowe.

Channel 9 was forced to broadcast its nightly news bulletin from Melbourne last night with Alicia Loxley.

The cyber attack comes as the network is set to air a story critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP

The cyber attack continued to decimate the network throughout the day, with the 6pm news bulletin in Sydney replaced by a simulcast program produced out of Melbourne and catering for both markets. Adelaide and Brisbane’s local bulletins went to air as normal.

The issues started on Saturday night, when staff at the North Sydney studio were unable to log on to their computers.

A source told The Daily Telegraph that some reporters flew to the Melbourne office on Sunday to use older equipment, which allows information to be entered manually compared to Sydney’s newer “automated” system.

Perhaps unwilling or unable to acknowledge the hack at first, Nine’s head of corporate affairs Nic Christensen initially put the drama down to “technical issues’’.

With live programming from Sydney impossible, Melbourne’s AFL Sunday Footy Show went to air nationally.

Nine is tonight set to air an episode of Liz Hayes’ Under Investigation program aimed at the Russian President, with the network promoting it as an expose on Putin’s “deadly campaign of chemical ­assassination’’.