Ransomware attacks are becoming the Internets biggest headache, with more and more companies and individuals becoming targets every day.
DISH network Corporation, the US satellite television provider (dish.com) and IPTV company SlingTV is currently in complete shutdown due to such an attack which is affecting its customer base of over 10 million subscribers.
The dish.com website simply displays a “system issue” message to customers, their phone app “Dish anywhere” doesn’t connect to a server, and call centres are all offline.
In a knock-on series of events, customers who try to use their dish.com credentials to access other affiliated services, such as MTV and Starz are also reporting that they cannot connect.
Disgruntled customers have been turning to social media platforms such as Twitter to vent their issues:
Mishandled communications
Many customers have been further angered by the lack of communications from Dish management leaving them hanging with no services, and no updates as to when it might be resolved.
It has taken dish nearly a week to release any formal statement that they had been hit with a cyber attack. On February 28th, Dish filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which identified the fact that they were currently dealing with a cyber attack, and that they now believe that the attackers have gained access to, and removed personal data.
The filed report does not detail what personal data they believe has been stolen or whether the data relates to staff, or customers – something which again will most likely anger customers in that they are now lefty with even more questions about what’s actually happening.