It was just reported that 8,000 passwords of Comcast users have been compromised.  Specifically, someone took these passwords and posted them on a document-sharing website, Scribd.  The document of the passwords has soon disappeared as of 1:45PM today, but that doesn’t mean millions of users haven’t downloaded or access the Comcast accounts.

Comcast responded by saying they are contacting the victims here as well as freezing their e-mail accounts until a new password has been set up.  They also noted that the user list is more like 4,000 since there were duplicates on the list.  Further, they are recommending the tainted users to download the McAfee Security Suite, which is a free anti-virus software available to Comcast users.

The scary factor here is that it is suspected that the password list was retrieved by a phishing tactic, where one e-mails a Comcast user for account info.  In return, the person is able to have access to the Comcast account as well as e-mail and credit card info.  We recommend that if you’re a Comcast user to reset your password as well as your other critical passwords.  Although you may have not had your username and password posted on the Internet, it doesn’t mean that your account was not compromised.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 9:04 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.