Sling TV subscribers may have noticed issues when trying to access or make changes to their account recently. Likewise, new customers may have also encountered issues when attempting to sign up to the service. It now seems as though these issues were the result of a cyber-security incident.
Dish Network was suddenly affected by various issues on Feb. 23. At the time, the company explained that it was suffering from an ‘internal system issue’ and that it was working to resolve the problem.
While Sling TV was not affected to the same degree as Dish, the outage did result in some of its customer care functions becoming unavailable. This also resulted in subscribers being unable to access or make changes to their accounts.
Dish has now confirmed that the outage was due to a cyber-security incident and that appropriate law enforcement authorities have been notified.
On Feb. 27, Dish became aware that the incident also led to some data being extracted from its IT systems, according to a recent SEC filing. The statement goes on to add that this extracted information could include personal information.
The filing also confirms that the original issue is still an issue. According to Dish, the company’s “internal communications, customer call centers and internet sites” remain affected at this time.
That’s largely the extent to the new information revealed in the SEC filing. The rest goes on to explain that the investigation is continuing with the help of third-party experts and advisors.
As this is an incident which has the potential to impact users, it is expected that Dish will make a much more public statement in the near future. In the meantime, the company is probably focused on actually getting what seems to be an ongoing situation under control.
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