Charter Communications acknowledged Friday that it discovered a data breach that made the private information of some of its customers available to outsiders.
Charter says those affected were Time Warner Cable customers who used the My TWC app, and the company is advising that those still using the app should change their usernames and passwords.
Charter completed its merger with Time Warner Cable 16 months ago, when Charter renamed its product “Spectrum.”
The company wouldn’t specify the details of the breach, but Gizmodo reported that about 4 million records were exposed, though that doesn’t mean that it involved 4 million individual customers.
According to Gizmodo, the breached files were discovered last week by Kromtech Security Center while its researchers were investigating an unrelated breach at World Wrestling Entertainment. The leaked records date from 2010 to 2017.
Charter emailed the following statement to The Hollywood Reporter:
“A vendor has notified us that certain non-financial information of legacy Time Warner Cable customers who used the My TWC app became potentially visible by external sources. Upon discovery, the information was removed immediately by the vendor, and we are currently investigating this incident with them. There is no indication that any Charter systems were impacted. As a general security measure, we encourage customers who used the My TWC app to change their user names and passwords. Protecting customer privacy is of the utmost importance to us. We apologize for the frustration and anxiety this causes, and will communicate directly to customers if their information was involved in this incident.”
A Charter representative refused to elaborate, but Gizmodo says the breach originated in India at BroadSoft, a communications company whose partners included Time Warner Cable.
