Time Warner Cable advises 320,000 customers of possible hack

Time Warner Cable has sent notices to 320,000 of its customers throughout the U.S., advising them to change the password to their email account out of concern that someone may have gained unauthorized access to that information. The telecommunication company said it was notified of the vulnerability by the FBI, but there’s no evidence to suggest that there was an actual breach.

“Approximately 320,000 customers across our markets could be impacted by this situation,” explained Eric Mangan, director of public relations. “To protect the security of these customers, we are sending emails and direct mail correspondence to encourage them to update their email password as a precaution.”

Of particular concern are customers with Roadrunner email accounts — those that had the RR.com domain in their address, Mangan said.

At this time, Time Warner Cable isn’t aware of how a breach could have occurred, but the company has suggested it could have been the result of a phishing attack or even a breach of third parties that store its customers’ information. “For those customers whose account information was stolen, we are contacting them individually to make them aware and to help them reset their passwords,” Mangan said. “Additionally, through our website, we provide several tips for how to navigate the Web more carefully and how to avoid phishing schemes.”

News of this incident follows a series of service outages Time Warner customers experienced over the past couple of months, including one in November, and one before and on New Year’s Day.

This isn’t the first time that the company has had to deal with security issues. In 2009, an independent developer exposed vulnerabilities in Time Warner Cable’s network, something that could have affected 65,000 customers. In that case, it was revealed that there was a vulnerability in certain cable modems that would allow someone to change the DNS settings to point to a malicious host.

If you think you might have been affected, it would be wise to change your email password, just to be on the safe side.