Yikes: Xfinity has suffered a data breach exposing the usernames, hashed passwords and potentially even partial Social Security numbers of 36 million internet subscribers
On December 18, Comcast notified customers of a «recent data security incident» with one of its software companies that exposed their personal information to an outside party. In October, someone gained «unauthorized access» to customers' usernames and hashed passwords for a period of four days. And it gets worse: Comcast says that «for some customers, other information was also included, such as names, contact information, last four digits of social security numbers, dates of birth and/or secret questions and answers.»
As CBS News reports, the data breach seems to have affected basically everyone subscribed to Xfinity—some 36 million Comcast Xfinity subscribers. The company reported over 32 million internet customers in a recent earnings report; according to the data breach notification Comcast filed with the Maine attorney general's office on Monday, the October hack affected 35,879,455 people. That's nearly 36 million, «including residents,» presumably meaning household members of Xfinity subscribers. That makes it hard to pin down exactly how many customers were victims of the breach, but regardless, if you're an Xfinity subscriber, change your password immediately.
According to Comcast, the company had determined «that information was likely acquired» in the breach back on November 16, and then it took until December 6 to determine that information included usernames, hashed passwords, and so on.
I'm sure there's a mountain of red tape and legal liability blah blah to wade through before reporting a breach that affects 36 million people—but also, Comcast could've potentially told those 36 million people to change their passwords and security questions more than a month ago. The company has given whoever hacked it a
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