Comcast Data Breach Compromised with 1.5 Billion Data Records

Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator network and, after the AT&T it is the second largest internet service provider as well as the third largest telephonic company in the US after the AT&T and Verizon Communications. 

Recently the research team of WebsitePlanet in collaboration with the security researcher, Jeremiah Fowler, identified a non-password-protected database with a total size of 478 GB of 1.5 billion records. The database of Comcast featured dashboard permissions, logging, client IPs, @comcast e-mail addresses and hashed passwords in publicly accessible domain. By this breach, a description of the internal functionality, logging and general network structure is established with the IP addresses contained in the database. The server also revealed the Comcast Development Team’s email addresses and hashed passwords. Further the database also provided the error reports, warning and the task or job scheduling information, cluster names, device names, and internal rules marked by the tag “Privileged=True.” Middleware also was detected in error logs and can often be used for ransomware or other bugs as a secondary way. 

However the measures to control the access to the data were taken around in an hour, as the malicious actors could have easily accessed and retrieved the confidential information until the data was secured. The researchers relying on Comcast’s data immediately submitted a notice of disclosure and affirmed their observations to their Security Defect Reporting team. 

Fowler also said that, this was among the fastest response times I have ever had. Comcast acted fast and professionally to restrict the data set that was accessible to anyone with an internet connection. 

A representative for Comcast stated that, “The database in question contained only simulated data, with no real employee, customer or company data, outside of four publicly available Comcast email addresses. The database was used for software development purposes and was inadvertently exposed to the Internet. It was quickly closed when the researcher alerted us of the issue. We value the work of independent security researchers in helping us to make our products and services safer and thank the researcher for his responsible disclosure in this matter.” 

Naturally, it is unavoidable to deal with errors which reveal data as long as people are engaged in configurations. However, Comcast’s size does cause these mistakes to be very disruptive and can affect many subscribers and business customers. That’s the reason why these firms would follow those security lists, double-check additional teams, and do whatever they can to reduce chance of publicity. Though in this incident the action was taken in time.