Change your passwords: Comcast hushes, minimizes serious hack

http://www.zdnet.com/change-your-passwords-comcast-hushes-minimizes-serious-hack-7000026118/

by 6cxs2hd6 • 12 years ago

92 33 12 years ago

I haven't been a Comcast subscriber in years, but I wonder if my credentials from ages ago could have been compromised?

Set them up with a unique password; then, even when this situation repeats, you'll only have exposed your Comcast account (likely not that important).

pmorici• 12 years ago

I really dislike Comcast I wish there was a viable competitor for Internet in my area.

shakeel_mohamed• 12 years ago

nathancahill• 12 years ago

Yes. Going to post a write up shortly on how I waived the $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps internet.

fernly2• 12 years ago

Specifically why? Because I am really tired of DSL and comcast is the only broadband I could get.

GabrielF002• 12 years ago

Monopolistic tendencies. High prices. OK quality. Terrible customer service. They're repeatedly ranked among the worst companies in the US in customer service and they've actually gotten lower scores than the IRS in the American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

In the ACSI Comcast's Internet service gets a score of 62 - the lowest of any ISP measured.[1] The IRS gets a 75 for individual e-filers and a 64 for self-employed and small business filers (scores are lower for big business and paper filers)[2].

[1]http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art... [2]http://www.theacsi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=art...

mcpherrinm• 12 years ago

Really? I am new to the US but I have been really happy with my Comcast. Self install was easy and quick, billing has always worked out fine, and while not super affordable, 50mbit is the fastest internet I've ever had at home. IPv6 too!

hueving• 12 years ago

Are you still on an introductory rate? Wait until you see the 'real' prices and after that and you will start to being the path to hating your cable provider.

e40• 12 years ago

Wait until you need something fixed. I'm in a residential neighborhood and have their Business service (faster response, higher speeds, more expensive). I'm often the first one to report a problem. What kills me is that 99% of the time it's not anywhere near my modem, but they insist on sending someone to my location before they'll even do a traceroute and see where the real problem is.

I usually just keep calling until someone knows what traceroute is. Then, I plead with them to run it before making me do all the things I already did ("Please power cycle the modem" ... and wait several minutes).

And, I haven't even gotten to when they started charging me $10/mo for the router, when they told me it was included in the service. Their reason? It's not required equipment. But it is. I have a static IP and I have to use their modem. However, I didn't find this out until I bought two different modems at the suggestion of different CSRs. Thankfully I bought them from Amazon and didn't have to pay a restocking fee or postage.

So, yeah, when it works and you're in the first year, it's all good. Otherwise, they suck ass.

mikeash• 12 years ago

It's good until it breaks.

One of their techs once came out because I had bad speeds, and replaced some connectors to fix it. Later, the problem returned. I went outside on a vague suspicion and found two cable boxes left open, cables naked to the elements, discarded cable and other miscellaneous parts strewn through the grass.

In another instance, my modem wasn't syncing with their equipment, as clearly indicated by the lights on the front of the device. They wanted me to reboot my computer as a first troubleshooting step. I convinced the guy that this was not necessary, then halfway through our conversation he somehow reverted to the script and asked to reboot my computer again!

Four hour window? You wish. They'll give you "noon to 4PM" and show up at 5, without even so much as a quick call to let you know they're running late.

I have FiOS now. I've had techs out twice, once to install the service and once to upgrade it. Both showed up exactly when scheduled and were great. I've had problems with the service once so far. When I called it in, the random first-line tech I got connected to understood exactly what I meant when I told her that the router wasn't getting a DHCP lease on their end, and walked me through what was required to reset the offending equipment, with no nonsense about my computers or what browser or OS I was running or anything of the sort.

I hope your experience is different than mine, though! It could happen.

aestra• 12 years ago

Wait until the tech sleeps on your couch.

http://youtu.be/viw2TVBygBg

TrainedMonkey2• 12 years ago

Can someone confirm exposure level? From article it seems only comcast email and forum servers were hacked.

Comcast user here, wondering if I need to change comcast account password.

thezilch• 12 years ago

Just do it; assume the worst; save yourself real trouble.

TrainedMonkey2• 12 years ago

Just did it. I checked and it seems they bundle email account even if you never use it.

sxates• 12 years ago

I have comcast, but have no idea what my account credentials are. I have never logged in to anything for them...

vangale• 12 years ago

Assuming the worst, for me, means they won't bother patching the Zimbra vulnerability.

schnable• 12 years ago

Your master email account is that same as account that is used to sign into their billing system. So yes you are exposed.

GabrielF002• 12 years ago

Free HBOGO for everyone!

rikacomet• 12 years ago

Apparently they did more. On 8th Feb, I had these two IP addresses checking out my who.is page.

64.246.165.10

216.145.14.142

I was certainly only curious, because it was a unpublished website with deny-all for all robots., so tried a reverse-ip using Who.is; To my surprise, the who.is page for the above two I.P. didn't load, thought it was maybe my connection, but then, when I used Whois.net to end up with the same result, I knew something was going on.

It was only after I googled the I.P address I found some dutch reverse I.P sites that said it was from comcast servers. Though I have nothing worth hiding, and it was just a testing ground for me, this was apparently not nice. I only got to know about the hack yesterday.

Perhaps they bulk collected data, using comcast servers?

dangrossman• 12 years ago

Those IPs have nothing to do with Comcast; they're not owned, hosted by or routed through Comcast. They both resolve to whois.sc -- a whois lookup site; indexing whois records is what they do.

    # nslookup 64.246.165.10
    10.165.246.64.in-addr.arpa      name = www.whois.sc.

    # nslookup 216.145.14.142
    142.14.145.216.in-addr.arpa     name = www.whois.sc.

conorclearshot• 12 years ago

How do you find who's being doing a whois on you?

josefresco2• 12 years ago

It's impossible for me to change my Comcast password ... let me explain. I have a "custom" email address for my Comcast account. I have never used the Comcast provided email or login (customer for 10+ years). Many years ago when I signed up I managed to setup my own email and have used it ever since.

Fast forward 5 years and I'm attempting to authenticate an iPad TV app with my Comcast account and I have a brain freeze on my password. I attempt a reset and it doesn't' work. I try again, and again, from differing machines and finally call. Long story short they have no record of my email and can't reset the password. My only option is to revert to the Comcast supplied email which I have never used and don't even know.

Luckily I remembered my password and was able to simply move on but was shocked that there was simply no official way for me to retrieve or reset my password yet I have an account that still works (even for billing)

dec0dedab0de• 12 years ago

Support will reset your password if you verify your information with them. I just had to do this for my mom so she could watch the Olympics on her ipad.

josefresco2• 12 years ago

I tried (via telephone) and they basically told me it was impossible, they had no record of my email in their system. This could have been simply incompetent support, however as I successfully guessed my old password I didn't feel like wasting another hour explaining my situation to a new rep with a small likelihood of solving or even improving my situation.

Change your passwords: Comcast hushes, minimizes serious hack

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