Last week DISH owned websites including that Dish Wireless, Boost Mobile, DISH TV, AirTV, and parts of Sling TV’s went down. DISH at the time just said it suffered an outage. Now DISH has confirmed in a Securities and Exchange filing that it suffered a cyber attack.
This outage has not affected the ability of DISH customers to watch TV or make phone calls but it has prevented them from contacting customer service and accessing their accounts online.
Here is how DISH described what happened:
On February 23, 2023, DISH Network Corporation (the “Corporation”) announced on its earnings call that the Corporation had experienced a network outage that affected internal servers and IT telephony. The Corporation immediately activated its incident response and business continuity plans designed to contain, assess and remediate the situation. The services of cyber-security experts and outside advisors were retained to assist in the evaluation of the situation. The Corporation has determined that the outage was due to a cyber-security incident and notified appropriate law enforcement authorities.
On February 27, 2023, the Corporation became aware that certain data was extracted from the Corporation’s IT systems as part of this incident. It is possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information. The measures described above are continuing while the Corporation, with the assistance of third-party experts and advisors, investigates the extent of the cybersecurity incident.
The forensic investigation and assessment of the impact of this incident is ongoing. DISH, Sling and our wireless and data networks remain operational; however the Corporation’s internal communications, customer call centers and internet sites have been affected. The Corporation is actively engaged in restoring the affected systems and is making steady progress.
At this time, that is all we know about what happened. DISH is not commenting on the reports that it was a ransomware attack. We also don’t know what data was extracted and how that may affect customers.
Update DISH has sent Cord Cutters News the following statement on the incident:
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.