“EvilJordie” Hacks Cox Cable, Company Gets Big FCC Fine

A hacker using the alias “EvilJordie,” impersonating someone from the Cox Communications tech department, got both a Cox customer service rep and a Cox contractor to enter their account IDs. The hacker was then able to access customer names, addresses, email addresses, secret questions/answers, PINs, and in some cases partial social security and driver’s license numbers of Cox customers. The Federal Communications Commission targeted the company for lax security and failing to report the breach to the Commission. The parties have now settled, with Cox agreeing to pay a $595,000 fine, provide free credit monitoring services to affected customers and revamp its security systems. It also agreed to be monitored by the FCC, for seven years. According to the Commission, this was its first privacy and data security enforcement action involving a cable operator.