Ransomware Attack Fallout: Dish Network Faces Multiple Lawsuits
Date:
April 6, 2023
Dish Network is facing multiple class action lawsuit filings stemming from a ransomware attack that caused a multi-day network outage in February and exposed customer data.
The lawsuits allege Dish "overstated" operational capabilities and maintained a deficient cybersecurity posture and seeks to recover investor losses who are accusing Dish of securities fraud.
“The civil complaint alleges that Dish Network attempted to conceal the fact that it maintained deficient cybersecurity and IT infrastructure while overstating its operational efficiency... As a result of the foregoing, the Company was unable to properly secure customer data, leaving it vulnerable," Bleeping Computer reports.
"The foregoing cybersecurity deficiencies also both rendered Dish's operations susceptible to widespread service outages and hindered the Company's ability to respond to such outages; and... as a result, the company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times," alleges the complaint.
Takeaway: The impact of ransomware attacks is staggering, especially when you consider that more than 4000 ransomware attacks are undertaken daily, according to the Department of Justice.
The annual impact from ransomware attacks in the US alone is estimated to be more than $20 billion dollars. Remediation costs following a ransomware attack average more than $4M per incident per each targeted organization.
These figures do not include tangential costs like damage to the brand, lost revenue, lost production from downed systems, and other collateral damage – including potential lawsuits brought by customers and investors.
Ransomware also creates liability and intellectual property loss issues for organizations as attackers focus on the exfiltration of sensitive data prior to delivering the ransomware payload:
- Ransomware Attacks are Stealthy: On average, a ransomware attack took 237 days to detect (about eight months) and 89 days to fully remediate (about three months) – this is when they are exfiltrating data for double extortion.
- Ransomware Remediation is Costly: The average ransomware attack response cost $4.54 million, more than the average cost of a data breach at $4.35 million – this represents an existential threat to organizations.
- Collective Business Impact is Huge: Ransom payments, damage to brand, increased premiums, legal fees, and lost revenue can far exceed remediation costs – this is why the focus needs to be on prevention and resilience.
Current solutions available in the market, while robust and effective for some threats, do not fully protect against ransomware attacks because they were built to detect malware variants in general, but were simply not designed to recognize ransomware.
Basic security hygiene is not enough though. Most attacks start at the endpoint, so endpoint security and resiliency are essential.
Halcyon.ai is the industry’s first dedicated, adaptive security platform that combines multiple advanced proprietary prevention engines along with AI models focused specifically on stopping ransomware – talk to a Halcyon expert today to find out more.
