Dive Brief:
- Up to 320,000 Time Warner Cable customers may have had their email passwords stolen, the company reported on Wednesday.
- Time Warner Cable said it has not yet determined how the information was stolen, though it says the information was likely gathered from downloaded malware or from data breaches of companies hosting Time Warner's customer information.
- There were no indications that Time Warner Cable's own systems were breached.
Dive Insight:
A company spokesman said the FBI informed them that some customers' email addresses and account passwords "may have been compromised," according to a Reuters report.
As a precaution, Time Warner said it is notifying customers to update their email passwords.
Time Warner Cable joins a growing list of companies that have had customer information compromised, including Target in 2013 and Home Depot in 2014. In December, toymaker Vtech became the victim of a data breach that impacted approximately 11.6 million customers, including 6.4 million children.
