Cable giant Comcast has confirmed that more than 200,000 of its customers were impacted by a data breach involving debt collector Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS).The breach, which happened in February 2024, is thought to have compromised the data of 3.2 million Americans overall. A notice released by Maine’s attorney general on Friday says that includes 237,703 Comcast customers, The Register reports.Though FBCS learned of the breach on Feb. 26, it wasn’t publicly announced until late April. Comcast notified its customers in August, which was revealed this week in the AG notice.According to the notification sent to Comcast customers, the stolen data included customer names, addresses, Social Security numbers, date of birth, Comcast account numbers, and ID numbers that were used internally at FBCS. “FBCS states that it has no indication that any personal information compromised during this incident has been further misused,” Comcast says.The notification to Comcast customers didn’t provide any technical details about the incident, including how the data was accessed or whether it was a ransomware attack—where cybercriminals lock down data and demand a fee for its return. Comcast stressed that “this security incident occurred entirely at FBCS and not at Xfinity or on Comcast systems.”Like FBCS, Comcast is offering a year of free credit monitoring for those who may have been impacted through data breach response firm Cyex.
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According to BleepingComputer, Truist Bank customers were also affected by the FBCS breach.Unfortunately, large corporations don’t seem to be winning the battle against hackers. An annual report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that 2023 was the worst year ever for compromised data, with the total number of publically reported victims exceeding 353 million. Healthcare and financial services were the industries most impacted, while the US and Russia were the worst affected countries.
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About Will McCurdy
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I’m a reporter covering weekend news. Before joining PCMag in 2024, I picked up bylines in BBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, The Daily Beast, Vice, Slate, Fast Company, The Evening Standard, The i, TechRadar, and Decrypt Media.I’ve been a PC gamer since you had to install games from multiple CD-ROMs by hand. As a reporter, I’m passionate about the intersection of tech and human lives. I’ve covered everything from crypto scandals to the art world, as well as conspiracy theories, UK politics, and Russia and foreign affairs.
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