Comcast customers need to be aware of a recently reported data breach that has exposed  the usernames and passwords of several Comcast customers the file sharing website, Scribd on Monday.

The original number affected that Comcast provided to the New York Times was 8,000 but this number apparently included duplicate entries, so now this number has been narrowed down to 700 accounts that were exposed.

The only information reported to have been affected in this data breach are usernames and passwords. A technology specialist who was searching the internet for his own email address came across the list, his information included. He immediately informed Comcast and the FBI and the document was removed from the website by that afternoon. The user name of the culprit who uploaded the file has been identified.

It is also being reported that the information was on the internet unprotected for at least two months. Statistics have shown that the file was viewed over 300 times and downloaded over 20 times.

Comcast has frozen the email accounts of the customers affected and contacted them about using stronger passwords. They are also being asked to download McAfee Security Suite software (free to Comcast users).

It is possible that Comcast is not the source of the data, but rather that this is the result of some sort of phishing message. Comcast spokeswoman, Jennifer Khoury has stated: “We have no reason to believe this came from Comcast. It looks like a phishing or related type of scheme.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 8:16 am and is filed under Data Breach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.