Passwords Compromised for Thousands of Comcast Subscribers
Kevin Andreyo, an education technology specialist in Reading, PA, came across a startling discovery Monday after vetting himself on the search engine Pipl. Inspired by the PCWorld article "People Search Engines: They know Your Dark Secrets . . . And Tell Anyone," Andreyo searched his e-mail address and found a list that included his Comcast username and password, as well as those for 8,000 other Comcast subscribers. The list, which appeared on the document-sharing Web site Scribd, had been up for two months, garnering 345 views and 27 downloads.
Mr. Andreyo alerted Comcast and the F.B.I. about the presence of the document, and it was removed Monday afternoon. Similar to the rest of us, Mr. Andreyo expressed concern in an interview with the New York Times that it "isn't just my password for Comcast, it's my password for everything that's not tied to my credit card."
Comcast diverted blame and said the list may have appeared as a result of a phishing scheme, although Mr. Andreyo doubts that he fell victim to such a scam. Jennifer Khoury, a spokeswoman for Comcast, said, "We have no reason to believe this came from Comcast. It looks like a phishing or related type of scheme." Ms. Khoury assured subscribers that the compromised e-mail addresses would be frozen, and that the company would offer advice about safe passwords and the use of McAfee Security Suite, anti-virus software that is available for free to all Comcast subscribers. [From: The New York Times]
Update: Brad Stone updated his New York Times bit blog today after a follow-up e-mail from Jennifer Khoury. According to Ms. Khoury, information for only 700 Comcast subscribers, not 8,000, was included in the document posted on Scribd. The remaining data on the list consisted of duplicate names, inactive accounts, or people who weren't actually customers.
Seven Security Breaches
45 Million Card Numbers Stolen from TJ Maxx and Marshall's
TJX Companies Inc., the umbrella corporation of TJ Maxx and Marshall's, was taken for over 45 million card numbers between 2004 and 2007. So much for those alleged TJ Maxx bargains.
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Thieves Snag 4.2 Million Credit Card Numbers from Supermarket Chain
Sometime between December, 2007 and February, 2008, data thieves -- infiltrating the credit card authorization system of Hannaford Brothers and Sweetbay grocery stores -- managed to obtain the information of 4.2 million cards. Close to 2,000 cases of fraud were reported.
17 New Yorkers Busted for ID Theft and Money Laundering
Back in 2007, the New York-based company Western Express International was found to be a powerful credit-card harvesting operation, responsible for trafficking 95,000 stolen card numbers. Seventeen employees were indicted.
More Than Four Million Health Records Breached in 2008
According to research firm DataLoss DB, 4.07 million individuals had their healthcare records compromised last year. We know at least two of them belonged to Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett, and were sold by a California hospital worker.
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CardSystems Solutions Taken for 40 Million Accounts
Having snuck past the security systems of CardSystems Solutions, data thieves compromised around 40 million card accounts in 2005. No word on whether or not the company has considered changing the name to CardSystems Problems.
Hackers Who Stole Credit Card Numbers from Dave & Buster's Arrested
Last year, the Justice Department busted an international ring of hackers who had stolen an untold number of credit card numbers from the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain by installing software on the company's national servers. Reported losses were well in excess of $600,000.
11 Arrested in Theft of 41 Million Credit Card Numbers
In August of last year, Federal prosecutors charged 11 thieves in the U.S.A., former Soviet states and China with stealing 41 million credit cards' information. A Miami man, Albert Gonzalez, was charged as the group's mastermind.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David said 11:13PM on 3-16-2009
Excellent rewriting job, Warren!
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obabystar said 10:23PM on 3-17-2009
COMCAST is the devil anyway
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terrie said 1:36AM on 3-18-2009
COMCAST SUCKS PERIOD~MCAFEE IS A JOKE AND WORTHLESS~THATS WHY THEY ARE LOSING CUSTOMERS BY THE TON~
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Sally G said 2:03AM on 3-18-2009
And they want more use of electronic medical records? It's not ready for prime time!
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Hugh said 2:28AM on 3-18-2009
Nice going, Lorie. I'm sure everyone is going to visit your site! Hahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha. Nitwit.
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Krissy said 9:32AM on 3-18-2009
Looks like a way to get free internet access too... not just identity theft....
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Patty said 7:53AM on 3-18-2009
Comcast has anti-virus software that's free to all Comcast customers? NOT! Their anti-virus software is only for PCs, not for Macs, so if you have a Mac, you're SOL. They keep saying, "We're working on it," "It's coming," but we've been subscribers for a number of years and it hasn't arrived yet. Strange, my money is just as good as someone who has a PC, but we are still second-class citizens.
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Joe De Felice said 1:38PM on 3-18-2009
Is there anything I should do to avoidproblems??
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Mary McLean said 11:08PM on 4-23-2009
why do I have to enter my email address and pass word each time
I get my messages/
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radrapac said 3:54PM on 6-21-2009
I am very troubled reading this, my 88 year old Mother, who is a widow (and has NEVER used a computer) I found her name, address and phone #. How do I delete all this to protect my elderly Mother?
Also, for myself...I am 58 and a very private person. I don't give my private information to anyone. Why am I available on the internet?
Please help me to delete all this.
All my thanks,
Ruthann
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