Dish Network Customers Lose Service Thanks to a Serious Ransomware Attack

Dish Network is one of the largest American television providers in the country today, offering television service through a direct-broadcast satellite network. The company serves more than 7.4 million customers and maintains over 16,000 employees to keep everything running properly. This huge broadcast network recently suffered from a ransomware attack that interrupted its broadcast service and may have exposed its customers as well. 

How Did the Attack Occur?

We don't know all the specifics just yet, but Dish Network was attacked by a hacker gang that initiated a ransomware attack on the company. The attack presumably compromised the company's data network and uncovered personal information, but we don't know what specifically. The gang found network vulnerabilities it exploited to gain access to Dish Network's files that it later encrypted. The gang demanded compensation from Dish Network to decrypt the files and restore the company's network to working order. We don't know if Dish Network paid the gang any money, but its services are slowly being restored since the attack, and customers should be able to utilize their services once again. 

What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?

Dish Network serves millions of customers, and those customers have data stored on the company's file network. There is no information about what files were accessed and stolen by the attackers, though. Dish Network has an investigation underway currently that's examining every aspect of its network, but public disclosure of the information isn't required unless private information was stolen. We have to wait to see if Dish Network offers any additional information about the attack in the future. For now, we only know that the network was compromised and that attackers were able to do serious damage to the company's file network and cause the service to go down as a result. 

How Did Dish Network Admit to the Breach?

Dish Network originally announced it was experiencing an outage during the February 23, 2023, earnings call. The company didn't specify the outage was caused by a cyber attack at first. Instead, it only informed users there was an outage. It wasn't until the following Wednesday that Dish offered a bit more information about the incident when answering questions from The Associated Press. The company still didn't go into detail about the attack and did not give information about when it would fully recover from the attack either.

What Will Become of the Stolen Information?

We don't know what information was taken from Dish Network specifically, but it's likely the attackers will get as much value as they can from the information. This means the hackers will sell off the information, use it for fraudulent activities or trade it for other information that can be used for profit. We still don't know exactly what information was compromised in the Dish Network attack, and we will have to wait to see what investigations uncover about the attack. 

What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?

There isn't a clear way to determine if you were impacted by this Dish Network data breach just yet. If the company later sends out notifications stating your information was compromised due to the attack, you should take steps to protect your identity. Investing in a credit monitoring service is an effective way to protect yourself and to remain aware of what damage is being done to your credit and your financial accounts.