Comcast Moves To Secure Accounts After Dark Web Leak

Comcast has moved to secure about 200,000 customer email accounts following a leak on the dark web, according to a new report. A seller on an unspecified dark web site claimed to have 595,000 Comcast accounts for sale; he or she was offering 100,000 accounts for $300 over this past weekend. According to Comcast, not all of those accounts were active, with 200,000 or so being affected. The ISP is changing the passwords on those accounts, and says the customers themselves are likely to blame for the breach.

The information comes from Fierce Cable, which says it spoke with a Comcast representative. According to that rep, the compromised accounts were probably the result of things the customers did, as Comcast was not hacked. Malware and phishing scams are cited as two possible explanations.

Some of the data offered by the seller was recycled, that is, had previously been stolen and was mixed back in with the newer information to try and boost the sales figure. It isn't clear what information was available through the compromised accounts.

Comcast recently stoked customer ire by announcing an (anticipated and unwanted) expansion of its data cap, which was first introduced in some southern cities. Starting December 1, many customers in cities throughout a few southern states will have their monthly data capped at 300GB per month, and will need to pay an extra fee to remove the limitation. Check out the timeline below for more info.

SOURCE: Fierce Cable