Data breach exposes Altice employee, Optimum customer information

James T. Madore reports:

A data breach at Altice USA Inc. has exposed the Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information of all 12,000 current employees as well as some former employees and a small number of customers, the company said.

Altice, the provider of Optimum cable television and internet services, said in a Feb. 5 notice to those affected by the data breach that it has “no information at this time that would indicate that your personal information has been misused.”

The breach occurred in November when an “unauthorized third party” used email phishing to gain access to the email account credentials of employees, said Lisa Anselmo, a spokeswoman for Altice. The stolen credentials were used to remotely access and download the contents of mailboxes.

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