Tag Archive for: Outage

Third-party gained access to University of Michigan systems, leading to August internet outage

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ANN ARBOR, MI – A third-party source infiltrated University of Michigan computer systems, which led to officials shutting down university internet during the outage at the start of the fall semester, officials said.

The university first detected suspicious activity on its campus computer network on Aug. 23, according to university spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen. The university’s Information Assurance team, which fights cybersecurity threats and malicious actors, shut down the system the afternoon of Aug. 27.

An investigation was launched into the hack, and with the help of third-party experts, it was determined that an unauthorized individual was able to access certain university systems from Aug. 23-27, officials said.

“Based on this data analysis, we believe that the unauthorized third party was able to access personal information relating to certain students and applicants, alumni and donors, employees and contractors, University Health Service and School of Dentistry patients, and research study participants,” Broekhuizen wrote in an email to MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

The university has determined that students, applicants, alumni, donors, employees and contractors have had the following information accessed: Social Security numbers, driver’s license or other government-issued identification numbers, financial account of payment card numbers and/or health information, officials said.

Research study participants through the University Health Service and School of Dentistry have had the same information accessed, plus any information related to participation in certain research studies, officials said.

In addition to disconnecting the campus network from internet, the university notified law enforcement and is working with outside cybersecurity experts to make its network more secure, officials said.

Letters were sent on Monday, Oct. 23 to all university individuals affected, officials said. People with sensitive information from this incident are being offered a credit monitoring service free of charge from the university, officials said.

Credit reports can be accessed in the following ways:

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City of Dallas identifies group responsible for network outage, ransomware attack

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Dallas officials gave an update Thursday after announcing that city servers were under a cyberattack Wednesday, affecting several city services.

“Vendors continue to work around the clock to contain the outage and restore service, prioritizing public safety and public-facing departments,” the city said in the update.

A ransomware group called “Royal” initiated the attack, according to city officials.

Bill Zielinski, the chief information officer for Dallas, will give a briefing on the attack on Monday, May 8.

As of 10 a.m. Thursday, the city provided the following updates on services:

  • Dallas Police Department and Dallas Fire -Rescue service to residents is unaffected.

  • 911 calls continue to be received and dispatched.

  • 311 calls are being answered, but non-emergency service requests may be delayed.

  • Courts are closed and LiveChat is inaccessible. All cases will be reset; jurors do not need to report for service and notices will be sent by mail.

  • Saturday’s election is unaffected. Dallas County will share official information including results. Meeting notices are being posted and meetings may be viewed at dallascityhall.webex.com, dallascitynews.net/watch-live, Spectrum channels 16 & 95, and AT&T U-verse at channel 99. Contracts may be delayed.

  • All branches of the Dallas Public Library are open and in-person checkouts continue. Online materials are currently unavailable.

  • Billing for Dallas Water Utilities is unaffected, but meter reading will be delayed. Only the department’s interactive voice response system can take credit card payments. Disconnections will be discontinued until the outage is resolved.

On Wednesday morning, the City of Dallas’ security monitoring tools notified the Security Operations Center that a likely ransomware attack had been launched on their servers.

The city confirmed later Wednesday that a number of servers have been compromised with ransomware, impacting “several functional areas,” including the Dallas Police Department website, the city said in a news release.

“The City team, along with its vendors, are actively working to isolate the ransomware to prevent its spread, to remove the ransomware from infected servers, and to restore any services…

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Dish Network Confirms Hack Following Chaotic Multi-Day Outage

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Photo of Dish Network sign

Dish Network, the television provider and satellite/telecoms company, has been hacked, according to a statement published Tuesday on its website. Dish— which owns Boost Mobile, Sling TV, and, weirdly, the last remaining scraps of Blockbuster, among other subsidiaries—has been experiencing significant disruption since February 23.

Still, days later, the company hasn’t recovered. Its primary website, dish.com, remains gutted except for a notice of “a system issue that our teams are working hard to resolve.” Some of the corporation’s other related sites, like dishwireless.com, are completely down. Internally, employees of Dish and its subsidiaries haven’t been able to access their remote desktops or internal communication system to actually work, accord to a report from The Verge. Customers have reported being unable to pay their television or phone bills because of the outage.

Though the company claims its services “should not be interrupted during this time,” in the pre-recorded message that’s replaced its customer service phone line, there’s been a noted uptick in reported service outages in recent days, per Down Detector. In short: it’s been chaos for Dish Network and its customers these past few days.

Now, the company has admitted the ongoing disruption is the result of a “cybersecurity incident.” In its statement, Dish wrote that the breach “has affected some of our internal communications, customer call centers, and internet sites.” Further, the company noted that on Monday, it “became aware that certain data was extracted from our IT systems as part of this incident.”

The company said its investigation into the breach is ongoing, and that it doesn’t currently known if any customer data was accessed by the hackers. “The security of our customers’ data is important to us, and if we learn that information was compromised, we’ll take appropriate steps and let any impacted customers know,” Dish wrote.

Both cybersecurity experts and law enforcement are aware of and involved in addressing the Dish breach, the company said—however, Dish didn’t offer any details of when the various, persisting problems might be resolved.

“As a result…

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Dish Network Hit With Multi-Day Outage, Suspected Ransomware Attack

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Dish Network has been hit by a suspected ransomware attack that’s taken down the company’s websites(Opens in a new window), apps, and customer service systems. The outage is now on its fourth day. 

The company’s main website currently features this message: “We are experiencing a system issue that our teams are working hard to resolve. For help with common issues, please select the Current Customer Support option below to see our FAQs and Troubleshooting guides.”

In a statement, a Dish spokesperson said: “We experienced a systems issue with our corporate network on February 23 that is affecting our internal servers and telephone systems, and the issue is being investigated. Our DISH TV, Sling TV, Wireless services, and data networks continue to operate and are up and running. However, some of our corporate communications systems, customer care functions, and websites were affected. Our teams are working hard to restore affected systems as quickly as possible and are making steady progress.”

As The Verge notes(Opens in a new window), the outage hit when Dish CEO Erik Carlson was on an earnings call. He reportedly said the company was dealing with an “internal outage that’s continuing to affect our internal servers and IT telephony.” 

Dish employees told(Opens in a new window) Bleeping Computer they are seeing “blank icons” on their desktop, typical of a ransomware infection that has encrypted files.

According to a Dish employee who spoke to BleepingComputer, their manager told them the incident “was caused by a known threat agent,” though the satellite-TV provider is currently in the dark on how they gained access. It is working with an “external vendor” to fix the outage.

BleepingComputer also reports that Dish customers are having issues when they try to sign in to TV channel apps like MTV and Starz with their Dish logins. Dish customers have taken to social media to report that they cannot activate equipment or SIM cards from the company. Customers have also said they are being prevented from paying their bills. 

In response to one customer who complained about the outage, the company’s Twitter support account tweeted(Opens in a new window) that an…

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