Nov. 10--Comcast is notifying about 200,000 customers to change their email passwords after discovering their account information was being sold online.
A list of 590,000 Comcast email accounts, including user names and passwords, was being shopped through a so-called dark web marketplace, a Comcast spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The good news, if any, is that much of the account information was incorrect.
The dark web is a collection of websites using anonymity tools to evade surveillance, sometimes for illegal activities.
"The vast majority of the information that's out there was not accurate," the spokeswoman said. "We discovered that about a third of the 590,000 were accurate."
Comcast, which has 28 million customers, said the information was likely obtained through phishing, malware or customers visiting compromised sites. There was no breach of its own data systems involved in compiling the list. The company started notifying customers on Sunday.
The information included the customer's user name and password, with the entire list selling for $1,000, according to security website CSO, which first reported the compromised email accounts.
The email accounts were connected to customers across the U.S., but a Comcast spokeswoman couldn't say how many were in the Chicago area.
rchannick@tribpub.com
