Dish, a satellite television provider in the United States, has confirmed that a ransomware attack is responsible for an ongoing service outage. The company also warned that the malicious actors have also exfiltrated data from its systems during the breach.
The outage, which has persisted for several days and was initially attributed to "internal systems issues," affects Dish's primary website, mobile applications, customer support systems, as well as the firm's Sling TV streaming and wireless services.
The threat actors behind the breach compromised the company’s internal systems. “It is possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information,” Dish says.
In a public filing released on Tuesday, the company acknowledged that the cause of the outage was a cybersecurity incident. The company has informed law enforcement authorities about the situation.
However, as of now, the company reported that the effects of the attack continue to disrupt its “internal communications, customer call centers, and internet sites.”
Additionally, the company has provided some details on how they are managing the situation. They are working to manage and contain the effects of the attack, assess the extent of the damage, and address any issues caused by the attack.
The company is also worried about the attack's potential impact on its employees, customers, business, financials, and operations.
Following the matter, the company further reported that the threat actors have stolen some data from their computer systems, which could include personal credentials.
Presently, it remains uncertain whether this data belongs to Dish's customers, employees, or both, and the extent of the data theft is also unknown. Dish has a big network, it serves 10 million customers through its satellite TV, streaming, and other services.
The company on its website reported that “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."
The company stated that they are still evaluating the damage caused by the cyber-attack. However, their services, including Dish, Sling, and wireless and data networks, are running without issues.
