Comcast Discloses Hackers May Have Stolen Data on 35.9 Million Xfinity Customers

Nemeski@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 300 points –
Comcast Discloses Hackers May Have Stolen Data on 35.9 Million Xfinity Customers
variety.com
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Man! They could be facing a hefty fine totalling up to $10,000.00.

Why should they pay for security when there is no real punishment for customer data leaks? They have geographic monopolies, so customers can't leave. Regulators will do nothing. Courts will do very little.

We need progressive leadership and legislation. Conservatism only benefits billionaires.

Should be a fine of $10,000 per customer whose data was breached. Plus any costs associated from each customer for stolen identities. Plus cost for identity protection services for each customer.

Comcast: we'd go out of business!

Good. Then the government can auction off your infrastructure (really the US's since we paid for most of it) and the next company won't fuck around with data.

Oh, and if the company tries to hide data breaches, it's a $1M fine per customer breached plus 10% yearly gross revenue as a fine, on top of the above.

This is one of those comments that makes me almost miss being able to gild things.

I'm regularly teased by "Google Fiber is available in your area!" ads. I check sporadically to see if it's changed, but my neighborhood wasn't among those wired for it, I guess, so bullshit dumbass Xfinity it is. I literally have no other broadband choice, unless I want to go DSL/satellite.

They do have competition from starlink

That's not accurate. Starlink does not offer service to heavily populated areas. Cities are stuck with whomever has sued the local governments most effectively.

I think your info is out of date. I checked an address in the most densely populated place in the US according to google, and its available.

Can you find an address in the US where Starlink is not available?

modt densly populated us place

Little chance many people in that area have the ability to have a satellite dish given they’d need outdoor space for it, and about 20% of the population lives in three sky scrappers.

Can't wait to get my $1.53 check in the mail 3 years from now!

The check will be worth less than the 13th month of "credit monitoring" people end up paying for when the free year that Comcast offers up runs out.

This guy gets it. Definitely not your first rodeo.

I fucking hate them so much honestly. They can't even keep my data safe and they are overcharging me so much lmao.

I am so eager to be rid of them. I check for fiber in my area weekly. The fact that they can implement a data cap is ridiculous.

Oh so that’s why they’re asking me to change my password just to check my bill. Because the language on the page was “we regularly perform security audits to help protect you, so please change your password now” and doesn’t mention the breach at all.

Is anyone still alive on the planet who hasn't been the victim of at least one data breach?

You know, it kinda makes me wonder if we should have listened a little more to the people who were paranoid of being tracked and went to live off the grid.

One?

<Laughs cries in T-Mobile>

You mean this month, right?

Right? It's insane. I have been doing infosec since the 90s and it is wild how everyone back then was arm waving and doomsaying and talking about digital pearl harbor and all that... while nothing all that big was happening.

I mean they were right. But compared to the last ten years? Holy sweet baby Jesus. We've had dozens of digital pearl harbors. One after another.

And still most companies don't take infosec seriously enough. Just as it is with any externality (climate change, pollution, people's well being), anything beyond purely growing profits is low priority. So they are making the same mistakes, coding the same bugs, falling for the same social engr attacks. Over and over again.

Meanwhile there's a huge profit incentive for the criminals and huge benefits for state level attackers, so they're throwing everything they have at it.

If I've been involved in less than a couple dozen breaches by now I would be shocked.

I occasionally think about that movie The Net and how ridiculous it seemed at the time. But it turns out they were right except it's not one person's identity being stolen, it's millions of people at once.

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My shit's been stolen like 50 times in the past two years. It's got to be worthless by this point.

Why exactly am I not surprised?

After two decades in the tech industry, a lot of it supporting sysadmins, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

The best information to collect is no information at all, and the second best information to collect is as little as possible to make the service work.

But how can they turn the customer info and behaviour into revenue if they don't collect it? Won't someone think of the bottom line?! /s

how was that even possible, connection should have mysteriously dropped after the first 50 megabytes or so.

This shit will not stop until people (execs who fail to dot their Ts and do the OWASP audits) go to jail for it.

"If you rob me it'll be for practice because I'm broke AF".

Meh

At this point (actually more like a decade ago but...): Lock down your SSN with every bureau and get identity theft insurance. Hell, you probably already have identity theft insurance since the "Ha ha, you can't sue us" response from most companies is a complimentary year or two and you likely get your data stolen at least twice a year.

I always expect current year to be the year when filing taxes is a hassle because somebody else already did it but it hasn't happened yet. And the rest is just background noise.

Isn't this the same month Mr Cooper had their data breach that effected 14 million customers?

fSociety really working overtime the last couple months.

I was more surprised there are 35.9 million Xfinity customers!

I mean, when it's literally the only option you have....

I remember when I first moved here I even called Verizon first. The rep told me, plain and flatout, that comcast, his competitor, was who I had to call, and there was no other provider in my area.

I'm sorry to hear that. It looks like my surprise at the numbers is more of me being out of the loop. I have Internet with AT&T and that is all I have (no cable or streaming other than HBO Max that comes with AT&T).

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