This intrusion not only demonstrates a risky and expanding practice among hackers, but it has also greatly increased the vulnerability of millions of US-based individuals. In certain cases, the situation is actually a lot worse than one may believe.
According to editor of Scamicide.com, Attorney Steven Weisman, this data breach is significantly dreadful for customers since threat actors were able to access the last four digits of social security numbers of the affected individuals. The first five numbers could easily be figured out by the hackers, as they are based on the owner’s residential address and the location where the card was issued.
“So if a criminal has the last four digits, the first three they can figure out easily, the second set they can get relatively easily, so it puts a lot of people in danger of identity theft,” explained Weisman.
Due to this particular issue of rather uncomplicated identification of social security numbers, the government had started randomizing the numbers in 2011.
Furthermore, these hackers are rather harmful. They introduced their malware in the software that Xfinity bought, rather than really hacking into Xfinity. According to Weisman, they are known as "supply chain" hacks, and their prevalence is significantly on the rise.
“They put their malware into the legitimate software. A company like Comcast gets some accounting software that they have no reason to think is anyway tainted and bam – the malware is in there and the personal information is stolen,” said Weisman.
In the recent times, these types of data breach are becoming more common. Customers are being asked by Xfinity to check their credit, change their passwords, and sign up for a multi-step verification process after the company announced the incident on its website. Additionally, people ought to routinely check their credit scores and freeze their credit.
About Xfinity
Xfinity is a US-based telecommunications business segment, owned by Comcast Corporation, used in marketing consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company. Xfinty, before being established in 2010 was operating under the common-label of Comcast, where the aforementioned services were marketed.