Slashdot Mirror
Time Warner Cable Warns 320,000 Customers of Possible Compromise (csoonline.com)
itwbennett writes: Time Warner Cable said on Wednesday that up to 320,000 customers have had their accounts compromised. 'We have not yet determined how the information was obtained, but there are no indications that TWC's systems were breached,' said Eric Mangan, public relations director for Time Warner Cable. 'The emails and passwords were likely previously stolen either through malware downloaded during phishing attacks or indirectly through data breaches of other companies that stored TWC customer information, including email addresses.' If this breach is like many others, expect that number of affected customers to grow, too.
So what "other companies" would have the email addresses of your customers? Who did you sell the information to?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They probably just sent the wrong file out to be cold called
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Time Warner refuses to be beaten in worst customer service.
Cable companies usually ask for a social security number (SSN). Were customer SSNs exposed as well?
'The emails and passwords were likely previously stolen either through malware downloaded during phishing attacks or indirectly through data breaches of other companies that stored TWC customer information, including email addresses.'
WTF was the info doing there? Outside TWC? Oh, don't tell me, let me guess: advertising.
this is little more than an irritation for most slashdotters practicing password segregation, but for the average home user the consequences of this are pretty relevant. The target for the data exfiltration, time warner, services individuals who cant distinguish internet from facebook or google. The password they use for time warner is likely the same for their wireless router (provided and configured by time warner) as well as their banking institution, amazon, and countless other online services. Whats even more infuriating is how clandestine Time Warner is being about this breech. Nowhere on the front of site for their cable conglomerates web presence is a breech even hinted. when logging into bill pay, the site also conveniently omits the fact that time warner has released the personal credentials of a usergroup the size of a midwestern city.
the real kicker? because this was reported by the federal government and not through time warners own due diligence, it raises more sincere questions about just how embeddded federal intelligence and law inforcement agencies are with internet service providers.
Good people go to bed earlier.
What pays off more to help a poor family? Should a person work as a suicide bomber or sell its body to get profits with the organs?
We don't know how the data was breached, but we're completely sure it wasn't out fault. Hard for me to believe that they know that the data was compromised without having been the target of the breach.
Will this get anyone to cancel? Will anyone say "That's it, I've had enough, I don't care if they're the only broadband/TV provider. I'll wait for my shows to download overnight."
Unique TWC password changed. Thanks, LastPass!
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
How often should we change all our unique passwords? Once a quarter? Monthly? In real-time, like changing phaser modulation when attacking the Borg?
I'm a sad Time Warner(RoadRunner) customer. No email or snail-mail yet.
I received the email from Time-Warner. Things they did wrong in their notice:
1. Quote "Time Warner Cable was recently notified by the F.B.I. that some of our customers’ email addresses including account passwords may have been compromised." Phish alarm #1 set (allusion to FBI notification)!
2. Embedded link to change password (Who embeds links in legitimate 'reset your password' notices?). Phish alarm #2 set and activated!
No link to 'more information here', only toll free phone numbers. Also, I only use the email password for TW, nothing else, ever for over 15 years now. I do not duplicate my email password for them anywhere, only ever sign in via web email or home (Mac OS X "Mail" program, served up by...Time-Warner!).
So if my password went out via anyone, it had to be Time-Warner, despite their claims otherwise.
I didn't get a bill for December, so I went in to pay it cold. Found out why I didn't get a bill for December, they routed someone else's mailed payment to my account and I was sitting at a credit.
If their record keeping is that bad, I'm not surprised they got hacked.
They claim that their cable systems have not been hacked. Yet, the FBI had to tell them that they had a problem. How can they make claims that their cable network is not a problem when they claim that they don't know how it happened?
A new set of Senators and Congressmen in the making!!!!
Moooo! Moooo! Moooo! And the herd runs.
Not likely, cable services based on territory there is no where to run too unless they leave their homes. Best to prepare big pharma train for herpes epidemic.