Comcast Says Hackers May Have Accessed Data on Millions of Xfinity Customers

Alex Weprin
·2 min read
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Millions of Comcast customers may have had some of their data stolen in a hacking incident.

The cable giant disclosed in a note to customers that due to a vulnerability in one of Comcast’s software providers, Citrix, “between October 16 and October 19, 2023, there was unauthorized access to our internal systems that we concluded was a result of the Citrix vulnerability.”

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In November, the company learned that some data was stolen, and “on December 6, 2023, we concluded that the information included usernames and hashed passwords. 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. However, our data analysis is continuing, and we will provide additional notices as appropriate.”

Comcast, in a separate filing to Maine’s attorney general, estimated that more than 35 million of its customers were impacted, though it isn’t clear how much data from each of those customers was taken in the breach.

The company told its customers to reset their Xfinity passwords and to consider adding multifactor authentication.

Large companies — and particularly companies that provide critical infrastructure like broadband internet — are constantly facing hacking threats, from both state actors and from criminals.

“In today’s environment, large companies face cybersecurity threats constantly,” Comcast wrote in its note to customers. “We have robust security programs in place which help us to discover criminal activity such as this one and to quickly mitigate it. Customers trust us to protect their information, and the company takes this responsibility seriously.”

Companies with ties to Hollywood are no exception. The most famous (or infamous) Hollywood hack was Sony in 2014, with thousands of internal emails and other data posted online by Wikileaks. However, Netflix, talent agencies and other players in town have also been victims over the years.

Even the elite private schools that the children of execs attend have been targets. Experts have suggested that employees working from home during the pandemic and post-pandemic could increase the occurrence of the hacks, as employees could be more lax with their security practices.

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