Comcast Email Hackedby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 29 May 2008 10:43 AM
Last night, the Comcast.net website (which is linked from Comcast.com as well) was broken in to and displayed a cryptic hacker's message. Users could not get to their email accounts and the main page is down. Comcast has since taken back control of their domain, although there are still several problems with their website. The website still may not display properly, and you may face a delay at being able to reach your email. Some users have reported that some email has been deleted. What does this hacking mean to you? Because of the nature of the Comcast email, personal information for users may have been obtained through account information. This information might include email passwords, names and addresses and even billing information. There is no indication yet whether or not any data stealing has occurred. Comcast has issued a very brief statement saying that they have the website under control but that users may still have difficulty accessing email. It appears that the hackers simply redirected the Comcast domain name and sent it to other servers. This would lessen the chance that any personal user data has been compromised. Comcast's hack is one of the largest security breaches in a long time. There are approximately 14.1 million Comcast email subscribers. If you are on Comcast email, I suggest that you change your email password to be safe. In fact, in terms of regular security, you should change your password on a weekly or at least monthly basis. Use a combination of letters and numbers, and stay away from obvious passwords, such as names, addresses, birthdays, pet names, etc. Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: Identifying E-Mail Hoaxes: Protecting Yourself Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantcomputers tags User Comments jonesx6 (1606) 29 May 2008 05:46 PMMary Ann, I have a question for you about this. I have my email, Comcast is my provider, go through Windows Email. Would this affect me? I've noticed that email from Yahoo Groups is not being delivered to my email account. Thanks for the heads up!! Laura  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 30 May 2008 03:14 AMIf the hacking issue was merely a hijack of the domain (which is what it appears to be), then you shouldn't be affected, since it would be a matter of getting to mail through the Comcast.net website. However, if the hack compromised personal data, then as a Comcast email subscriber, your information would be just as vulnerable. As for your Yahoo groups mail, there could be a number of things going on. Comcast could have suspended incoming mail temporarily while they gained control of their site, or it could be a Yahoo issue. My guess is that it the common yahoo issue of blocked email. You can go to the Yahoo email site and read about blocked email issues. Let me know if you are still having problems. jonesx6 (1606) 30 May 2008 03:50 AMThanks for all the great information. This morning when I checked all my email came flooding into my Windows Mail. I was wondering what happened now I see. Laura Community Tags comcast webmail, comcast email, comcast hacked, security breach Discuss this article
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