Comcast, the nation’s second-largest Internet service provider, had its Web site and e-mail service shut down by hackers Wednesday night, affecting thousands in Tucson and millions nationwide.
Comcast customers, including thousands in metro Tucson, still have functioning Internet service but no access to the Comcast.net site and limited access to their e-mail.
The shutdown happened about 8 p.m. Wednesday night.
Kelle Maslyn, a Comcast spokeswoman, said the company is working with authorities to investigate.
The problem arose when hackers altered Comcast’s information at Network Solutions Inc., a domain registrant, to redirect those who accessed Comcast servers to computers that the hackers themselves set up.
The resulting switch generated confusion for Comcast customers, who tried to log in to comcast.net or retrieve e-mail through the site Wednesday night.
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Instead of an e-mail inbox, they were greeted with hacker-speak, and that the company was “RoXed.”
That message has since been taken down and replaced by either a blank screen or a variety of error messages.
It is unclear if Comcast users were ever redirected to a fake e-mail login page — which could have been used to collect information — but a Comcast representative said users’ information was never compromised.
A Comcast technician advised a customer Wednesday night against trying to access the company site or e-mail until the problem is resolved, but said using the Internet service to access other sites should be safe.
Comcast has about 80,000 customers in Pima County, but it would not say how many have e-mail accounts, citing proprietary business reasons. The company has about 14 million subscribers nationwide.
Comcast customer?
We'd like to hear how this service disruption has affected you, and what Comcast has told you about what's going on and what's being done to fix the problem.
Contact Jack Gillum at 520-573-4178 or at jgillum@azstarnet.com
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