Comcast data breach
From Breaches, in the HARD wiki · Updated
This article is about the November 2015 breach of Comcast. For every breach, see Breaches.
The Comcast data breach exposed 616,882 accounts from comcast.net in November 2015. The data taken includes passwords, physical addresses and email addresses.[1]
Have I Been Pwned verified it and added it to its search on 8 Feb 2016, 3 months later. It is the 461st largest of the 618 breaches in HARD’s list.
What was exposed
Comcast’s breach included 3 kinds of data. What each lets criminals do:
| Data | What it’s used for |
|---|---|
| Passwords | Criminals try leaked passwords on email, banking and shopping sites, because people reuse them. |
| Physical addresses | Used to prove who you are, and for scam letters and parcels. |
| Email addresses | Expect scam emails that name the company to look genuine. |
What to do
- Check whether you’re in it.Search your email address on Have I Been Pwned. It tells you which breaches it appears in, Comcast among them, without showing the data.
- Change your Comcast password.If the account still exists, sign in at Comcast (comcast.net) and change it.
- Change it anywhere you used the same one.Start with your email, then banking and shopping. Leaked passwords are tried on other sites automatically, within days.
- Use a password manager and two-step sign-in.A different password for every site means one breach can’t open the rest. Two-step sign-in stops a leaked password working on its own.
- Distrust messages that mention Comcast.Scammers use breach data to sound genuine. Don’t click links in emails or texts about the breach; go to the site yourself.
Looking for the settlement? The Comcast data breach settlement is over a different breach, not this one.
Timeline
- : the breach, as best it can be dated.
- : Have I Been Pwned verifies the data and adds it to its search, 3 months later.
Similar breaches
Breaches that leaked the same kinds of data, closest in time:
- ClearVoice Surveys, August 2015, 15 million accounts
- Patreon, October 2015, 2.3 million accounts
- MyFHA, February 2015, 972,629 accounts
- CashCrate, November 2016, 6.8 million accounts
- Tuned Global, March 2016, 985,586 accounts
- Domino's, June 2014, 648,231 accounts
See Breaches for all 618, and Updates for keeping your devices patched.
References
External links
- Have I Been Pwned, to check your email address
- comcast.net, Comcast’s website