Hackers Take Over Comcast For Several Hours

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080529/ap_on_hi_te/tec_comcast_web_hack

NEW YORK - Hackers took over and defaced Comcast Corp.'s Web portal for several hours overnight, leaving a cryptic message on the site that the company's 14.1 million subscribers use to access e-mail, news and technical support.

The front page of Comcast.net went down shortly before 11 p.m. EDT Wednesday and was replaced with a note saying the hackers had "RoXed" Comcast, according to postings at BroadbandReports.com.

Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said late Thursday morning that the hijacking had been reversed, but some users were still unable to access Comcast.net and Web-based e-mail.

There was no indication that e-mail or other private information was compromised by the attack, Comcast said.

The hackers appeared to have seized control of the Comcast.net domain name at registrar Network Solutions Inc. and redirected it to other servers, Khoury said.

"We have alerted law enforcement authorities and are working in conjunction with them," Khoury said.

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Did they happen to pay my final bill while they were on there?

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and if you think on'line banking is safe ... ... read below .

another report just out today - but not on the net yet - stated that banks are not readily reporting internet fraud . if necessary , they rather pay than have their name publicized - they don't like to scare customers .
a/t to a RCMP report , canadian banks want to set up a system where they can report internet fraud WITHOUT having to reveal the banks name .
hbg

Quote:

Online banking not as safe as we've been led to believe
Devil is in the fine print, experts warn

Sarah Schmidt
Canwest News Service

Friday, April 11, 2008

OTTAWA -- Canadian banks mislead their customers about the safety of online banking in their marketing materials and give users a false sense of security with a refund guarantee if hackers raid their accounts, a leading software-security expert concludes in a new study.

Paul Van Oorschot, Canada Research Chair in Network and Software Security at Carleton University, and Ph.D student Mohammad Mannan, a specialist in Internet security, tested the standard banking claim of a "100-per-cent online-security guarantee" against the fine print that makes it conditional on fulfilling complicated security requirements.

The researchers opened up bank accounts at Canada's five major banks and one online bank, and surveyed 123 technically advanced users, mainly computer-science students and security researchers.

Most in the survey are more security-aware than average customers, and still failed to satisfy common security requirements. Expecting average people to meet them is "extremely naive," they write.

"We conclude that most average users are ineligible for the 100-per-cent reimbursement guarantee banks assert, and doing online banking with 'confidence' and 'peace of mind' is no more than a marketing slogan which misleads users."

They found that despite strong recommendations about password uniqueness, in one case, RBC listed "iwthyh," an acronym for the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand, as an example of a "rock-solid" password.

Meanwhile, most banks' customer agreements require users to maintain up to date copies of anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware programs. The survey of 123 tech-savvy users found fewer than half reported using anti-spyware on computers used for banking, and more than a quarter do not use anti-virus software. Ten per cent do not use any firewall.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

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That is true cjhsa because I use comcast. The page wouldn't open and then it got re-directed to a page called Network Solutions or the message said Comcast site is unavailable at this time because of maintenance.

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That explains why I couldn't access my webmail account early this morning.... Bah!

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I had problems this morning too. The page kept trying to open and then it would close. The page just kept flashing back & forth.

Edit: A security alert box popped open from Apple and then their site sent a security update. Don't know if this had anything to do with the comcast site though.

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Maybe it was a payback?
http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-hacked-in-bittorrent-throttling-packback-080529/

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Ah yes, Comcast was great fun for the last coupla days.

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Well, I hope they find out who is responsible and can prosecute them.

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I don't have Comcast. I have Cox (and please, no cocks jokes)

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The verbiage being used to describe the hack is a bit misleading. It was only a DNS hack that basically involved a social engineering exploit, that is, tricking a user into giving them the password to the dns management system and not a technical hack. They got access to DNS managment systems with Comcast's domain registrar then called someone at Comcast who dismissed their threat and then decided to redirect the dns to the site showing their shout outs.

So this wasn't a true defacement in that the actual servers weren't compromised and the actual sites were not defaced, the traffic was rerouted to a server under the hackers' control displaying their page. User data could have been compromised if they put up a similar-looking site and stole logins as people tried to access their accounts but this did not happen and they did not capture any user data.

They aren't going to get away with it because they left a trail leading right in their direction and are giving interviews and basking in their "glory".

Email: [email protected]
Website they hastily put up for the attention: http://www.defiants.net/

Picture they gave for their wired interview from their myspace pages:

http://blog.wired.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/29/defiant_bong.jpg

Screenshot they gave wired of their entry to the registrar:

http://blog.wired.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/29/comcast_2.jpg

These idiots aren't going to be hard to find.

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So, they did this because it was fun? To get back at Comcast? Because they could? I hope they get charged by law enforcement agents.

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A website with a fart button would have more content than Comcast.

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Even so, that is no reason to hack them. Maybe the ones responsible can think long & hard about it in a prison cell.

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Bah, this kind of Internet trickery has gone on forever. If anything it shows a need for training at the DNS registrar. They got duped, not hacked.

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According to Robert Gentel it was a DNS hack. In my book, that is still a hack and probably cost Comcast money.

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Basically, they managed to get the DNS registrar to change the IP address associated with comcast.com. Then all requests to that URL went to their server instead.

If you knew Comcast's IP address, you could still get to their site. The problem for most is, you don't tend to capture that info unless you actually work on the system(s).

It's likely that internally, nobody even noticed the problem, since they are using their own DNS servers and have it hardcoded.

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I don't believe Comcast was aware of the situation until customers started calling them. I still don't think what they did is funny. It disrupted service for alot of people.

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I posted this only as a public service announcement, not as humor.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer company though.... in my neighborhood they are the sole providers of high speed Internet. They will sell you phone, cable, and Internet for $99/month, but if you just want Internet, that'll be $69.99....

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I pay more than that to have high speed internet, cable & phone. They are not the only choice where I am.

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Hackers Take Over Comcast For Several Hours

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