Comcast has warned that more than 230,000 customers have been impacted due to a data breach that occurred in February 2024. Specifically, a third-party debt collector suffered a ransomware attack, resulting in substantial data theft.
Security breach in 2024 resulted in theft of Comcast customers’ data
Comcast has admitted that a data breach in early 2024 resulted in the data exfiltration of more than 230,000 customers. According to a court filing, 237,703 subscribers were impacted by the breach.
It is important to note that Comcast did not suffer any data breach. The carrier has mentioned that a Pennsylvania-based debt collection agency called Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) was the victim of a ransomware attack.
What is concerning is that FBCS initially maintained that the incident didn’t compromise any customer data. In other words, the company did admit that it suffered a ransomware attack but didn’t mention bad actors managed to steal customer data.
FBCS reportedly notified Comcast that customer information had been compromised in July. The data breach had occurred in February, the court filing has revealed:
“From February 14 and February 26, 2024, an unauthorized party gained access to FBCS’s computer network and some of its computers. During this time, the unauthorized party downloaded data from FBCS systems and encrypted some systems as part of a ransomware attack.”
According to Engadget, the ransomware creators were quite thorough. The attackers stole customers’ names addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, Comcast account numbers, and ID numbers.
Will Comcast customers be vulnerable to cyberattacks?
Comcast has indicated that customers who signed up with the company “around 2021,” are the most impacted by the data breach that occurred in 2024. The wired broadband internet service provider has claimed that it has stopped using FBCS for debt collection.
So far, no ransomware group has claimed responsibility for the successful attack and data theft. Moreover, Comcast customers are just one group of victims whose data was stolen. FBCS has admitted that around four million people were impacted by the data breach.
Needless to say, this could be one of the biggest cyberattacks in 2024. Hence, ordinary citizens would have to be cautious. As a debt collector was attacked, bad actors could pose as debt relief agencies to try and carry out attacks.
