One week ago, DISH, Boost Mobile, Sling TV, and AirTV’s websites all suffered a cyber-security breach. DISH, Boost Mobile, and AirTV’s websites went fully down, but Sling TV so far has only suffered outages with its customer service sites.
DISH and Boost Mobile websites are back online but with limited options and limited customer service. AirTV.net is still 100% down a week after the attack.
Earlier this week, DISH confirmed that it has suffered a cyber-security breach that many have described as ransomware. For now, well DISH and Sling TV services are mostly up for their customers it has prevented new customers from signing up. Also, reaching DISH customer service has been extremely difficult since the attack.
Currently, DISH customers are not even able to make payments on their accounts, but the good news is DISH says they will waive all late fees that happen because of the outage. Customers will also not be cut off for non-payment during this time as DISH works to restore their systems.
There is still no timeline for when DISH will bring its systems fully back online. For now, customers will need to wait but can still keep using their service even if they can’t reach customer service.
Here is a statement from DISH on the cyber-security breach:
On February 23, we experienced a cybersecurity incident that has affected some of our internal communications, customer call centers, and internet sites. We immediately activated our incident response and business continuity plans to contain, assess and remediate the situation. We retained the services of cybersecurity experts and outside advisors to assist in the evaluation of the situation, and we notified appropriate law enforcement authorities.
On February 27, we became aware that certain data was extracted from our IT systems as part of this incident. It’s possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information. The forensic investigation and assessment of the impact of this incident is ongoing. The security of our customers’ data is important to us, and if we learn that information was compromised, we’ll take the appropriate steps and let any impacted customers know.
As a result of this incident, many of our customers are having trouble reaching our service desks, accessing their accounts, and making payments. We’re making progress on the customer service front every day, including ramping up our call capacity, but it will take a little time before things are fully restored. Our DISH TV, Sling TV, Wireless services, and data networks continue to operate and are up and running.