Charter Communications impacted by a vendor data breach exposing 550K customers

Leading American telecommunications and mass media company Charter Communications, serving over 32 million customers in 41 states, has disclosed that one of its third-party vendors suffered a security breach.

Some data from the company showed up on a hacking forum, where a user posted information allegedly stolen from Charter Communications. The database reportedly contains 550,000 user records, names, account numbers, addresses, Unique IDs, and more. The hacker post also said the database includes various customer information on repairs and sales.

According to a company spokesperson, there is currently no proof that any proprietary network information or financial data has been compromised. When asked which third-party vendor was hacked when the hack happened and when impacted customers would be notified, the spokesperson remained silent.

The breach comes just two weeks after the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to investigate potential changes to the breach notification rules for telecom companies.

Charter Communications is the second-largest cable operator in the United States and fifth largest telephone provider. On Friday, the company reported nearly $14 billion in revenue for the last quarter of 2022.