What happened
The stock is up as of midday Friday. But the relatively modest 4% gain for the day isn't nearly enough to unwind what will end up being a full-week loss of around 14% for Dish Network (DISH +0.00%) shares, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The bulk of the setback is driven by a major service outage suffered on Monday, although it's worth mentioning that the stock was already vulnerable following the previous week's lackluster Q4 report.
So what
It was worse than it initially seemed.
Beginning roughly a week ago, certain aspects of Dish Network's service began failing. While most customers were able to continue watching cable television, reports of bill payment problems, unreachable call centers, and disrupted wireless phone networks (Dish also owns BoostMobile) soared.
The company has since confirmed that this outage is linked to a semisuccessful ransomware attack. Although the company is still investigating the extent and nature of the cyberattack, Dish said in an official disclosure that "it is possible the investigation will reveal that the extracted data includes personal information."
That's not a good look even if no customer data is found to have been compromised.
It's also worth noting, however, that Dish Network shares might have already been highly vulnerable to such a development.
During the previous week, the satellite cable company had reported another round of cable-TV customer losses, this time totaling 268,000. Notably, even its lower-cost streaming cable television service, SlingTV, lost around 80,000 customers during the three-month stretch ending in December, calling this conventional cable alternative's long-term viability into question. This week's weakness in the stock merely extends what's turned into a months-long losing streak because of this customer attrition headwind.
Now what
Not that a great number of investors were mulling starting a new position in Dish Network anyway. But the ones that were now have one more reason not to do so.
In this day and age, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to establish and maintain a defense against ransomware attacks. Either there's something about Dish's network that is uniquely difficult to defend, or the company is simply not doing enough cybersecurity work to protect its digital infrastructure. Either way, this vulnerability weakens an already-weak bullish thesis.
NASDAQ: DISH
Key Data Points
More than anything, though, Dish Network is still a stock to avoid, mostly because the cable television business remains under tremendous pressure. This company doesn't have enough in its revenue-bearing wheelhouse to sidestep or offset the industrywide weakness rooted in the cord-cutting movement, and Boost Mobile is a small player in a mobile arena that's not only saturated but crowded with much bigger competitors.
Look elsewhere if you were considering purchasing Dish shares in the wake of their recent pullback. There's a good chance they have yet to reach their ultimate bottom.
