Dish Network Hacked – Ransomware Attack Causes Power Outages

DISH Network Corporation learned on February 27, 2023 that the recent incident involved the extraction of certain data from the company’s IT systems. The inquiry potentially shows that the data extracted contains personal information.

“It is possible the investigation will reveal that the mined data includes personal information,” Dish Network said in the SEC filing.

Dish Network has now acknowledged that a multi-day network and service outage that began on Friday was caused by a ransomware attack.

On February 23, 2023, DISH Network disclosed that there had been a network breach that had affected internal servers and IT telephony.

To contain, evaluate and fix the problem, the company immediately activated its incident response and business continuity strategies.

To help assess the problem, independent consultants and cyber security specialists were hired. The company has informed the appropriate law enforcement authorities after determining that the outage was caused by a cyber security incident.

“The company has determined that the outage was due to a cybersecurity incident and notified relevant law enforcement authorities,” Dish Network.

The impact of the event

According to the reports, the impact of this incident is still being evaluated as part of the forensic investigation.

DISH, Sling and its wireless and data networks continue to operate; However, internal communication, customer center and internet pages for the company have been affected.

The company said it is “actively engaged in restoring the affected systems and is making steady progress”.

Straight[.]com, the Dish Anywhere app, Boost Mobile (a Dish Wireless subsidiary) and other Dish Network owned and operated websites and networks were all affected by this massive outage. Consumers have also complained that it was not possible to reach the company’s customer center by phone.

Dish Network’s website continues to experience problems and is only partially operational. The firm openly declares at the top of its website that “We are experiencing a system issue that our teams are working hard to resolve.”

After reports of a potential hack began to spread, shares of Dish Networks have fallen. Dish Network did not identify the ransomware gang responsible for the attack; However, insiders have told BleepingComputer that the attack was carried out by the Black Basta ransomware operation, which first compromised Boost Mobile and then Dish corporate networks.

The company’s Windows domain controllers were also compromised during the early morning attack on February 23, and after that VMware ESXi servers and backups were encrypted.

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