Dish Network confirms ‘cyber security incident’ in which personal data was stolen; Inventory falls to lowest level in 14 years

Shares of Dish Network continued their multi-day slide on Tuesday, falling another 6% to a 14-year low of $11.41 after the pay-TV and wireless provider confirmed that its systems had been hit by a cyber attack.

Disruptions and new information about them came in waves. When executives held a conference call last Thursday to present fourth-quarter results, they acknowledged that internal servers and IT resources had been shut down. The company said in a filing with the SEC on Tuesday that it discovered on Monday that personal customer information may have been “extracted” during the attack.

“The services of cyber security experts and external consultants have been engaged to help evaluate the situation,” the filing states. The company also said it notified law enforcement.

“Forensic investigation and impact assessment of this incident is ongoing,” the filing states. Dish’s satellite TV service, Internet TV bundle Sling, and wireless and data networks remain operational, the company said, but internal communications, customer call centers and websites were affected. “The company is actively working to restore affected systems and is making steady progress,” the filing said.

Dish is in the midst of a long-term shift from the satellite TV business, where it started, to telecommunications. As part of the recent merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, Dish acquired wireless spectrum assets and also acquired capacity at auction. At the end of 2022, Dish had 9.75 million pay TV customers and nearly 8 million mobile customers.

Communicating with these millions of customers was a grueling process after the cyber attack. “We are making progress with customer service every day, including increasing our call center capacity, but it will take time to fully recover,” the company said in a letter to customers circulating on social media.

Adding to the days-long technical nightmare, the company was also hit by a “double downgrade” from Bank of America analyst David Barden. He downgraded his rating on Dish stock two notches from buy to underperform (or sell) and lowered his 12-month price target to $10 from $30.