BOSTON - TV provider Dish Network recovered Wednesday from a ransomware attack last week that it said disrupted operations, internet sites and call centers. It said unspecified data was stolen and it was investigating whether that included the personal information of customers.
We are experiencing a system issue that our teams are working hard to resolve, said a message on Dish's main page. A notice to customers said that many were having trouble reaching our service desks, accessing their accounts, and making payments. Dish TV was up and running, it added.
As many victims of ransomware, Dish did not immediately acknowledge the outage s cause when it announced it on a February 23 earnings call. It did so in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
The stock price of the Colorado-based company has fallen 20% since it first reported the incident.
Dish did not respond to questions about the ransomware attack, including which criminal group was behind it, how much ransom was demanded and whether or not the company paid. Nor did it say how long the attackers were inside the network.
Ransomware gangs, which operate mostly from Russia, break into networks and sow malicious code. They steal files before the criminals activate the ransomware, which is used to encrypt data. That increases their chances of obtaining extortion payments and helps explain why ransomware has become the leading global cybersecurity headache.
It sent a notice online that said it discovered Monday that some data had been stolen. It's possible that the investigation will reveal that the extracted data contains personal information. The notice said that if we learn that information was compromised, we will take the appropriate steps and let customers know that it's important to us.