Charter Communications charter.com Charter (Spectrum) data breach: what happened and what to do
In May 2026, an extortion group leaked data stolen from Charter, the company behind Spectrum. Have I Been Pwned lists 4,851,517 accounts, with email addresses, names, phone numbers and home addresses. Charter says no sensitive personal information was taken.
View all 13,177 breaches- Breach date
- 23 May 2026
- Affected
- 4,851,517
- Data exposed
- Email addresses, Job titles, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses
- Verified
- Yes
- Last updated
Source: Have I Been Pwned (CC BY 4.0)
Reviewed by Anthon Wansland
Head of Product & Co-Founder
Serus is a privacy company with paid tools to find and remove your personal data. This page is free and based on official sources.
Charter Communications runs Spectrum internet, TV and mobile service. In late May 2026 an extortion group named Charter as a victim and then published the data it had. Have I Been Pwned (HIBP) added 4,851,517 accounts on 28 May 2026.
What happened
HIBP dates the breach to 23 May 2026. The attackers said they had taken more than 42 million records. Charter hasn't confirmed that number, and some reviewers said duplicated records pumped it up. The figure HIBP could verify is 4,851,517 unique email addresses.
The attackers also told their own story: a voice phishing call around 1 April 2026 got into a Charter employee's Microsoft account, and from there they exported data from Charter's Salesforce environment. That is their claim, not a finding by Charter. Charter confirmed the incident and said that no sensitive personal information or customer proprietary network information was taken. Some outlets questioned how far that holds, so treat it as the company's position.
Law firms have announced investigations into possible class action claims. No settlement has been reported so far.
Sources checked: haveibeenpwned.com, techlicious.com, scott-scott.com
Last verified against the official page:
What was exposed
HIBP lists five types of data: email addresses, job titles, names, phone numbers and physical addresses. The job titles come from about 85,000 records that look like an internal employee directory.
What that lets criminals do
Picture a call from someone who knows your name, number and home address, and knows you pay Spectrum. Easy script to write. The caller says they're from Spectrum about an outage or a refund, and reads your address back to sound legitimate.
The same details help with account takeover at your phone carrier. A criminal calls the carrier and poses as you, then asks to move your number to a new SIM. On Spectrum Mobile? Watch for this one.
For the employees in the directory, a job title lets an attacker write a believable message to a coworker or a vendor. That tactic is called spear phishing.
The company's response
Charter confirmed the incident and said that sensitive personal information and customer network information were not taken. It hasn't published a verified count of affected people. Look out for a direct notice from Charter.
What this means in practice
Protect your Spectrum account first. Anyone who can pass as Spectrum by phone or email can ask you to read out a code. If a call worries you, hang up and call back on the number printed on your bill. Texts work the same way: a link in a message about your service isn't a reason to log in. Type the address yourself, and have verification codes go only to the app or number you chose.
What to do if you were in it
- 1
Expect calls and emails posing as Spectrum
Messages about outages, refunds or billing problems may use your real address. Hang up and call the number on your bill, or sign in to the Spectrum site yourself.
- 2
Secure your Spectrum account
Use a unique password and turn on two-factor authentication. Never read a verification code to anyone who calls you.
- 3
Add a PIN to your mobile account
If you use Spectrum Mobile or another carrier, ask for an account PIN and port-out lock so nobody can move your number.
- 4
Watch for smishing
Treat texts with links about your service or payment as fake until you check in the app.
- 5
Check whether your email or phone is in this and other breaches
Run a free scan at serus.ai to see which breaches include your email address or phone number. Serus monitors breach databases and the dark web and alerts you when your data shows up, so you hear about the next one early. It can't remove data from breach dumps, which is why the other steps here matter.
Timeline
-
The breach happened
-
Added to Have I Been Pwned
Frequently asked
Was I affected by the Charter data breach?
HIBP lists 4,851,517 accounts. Search your email on Have I Been Pwned or run a free Serus scan.
What was exposed in the Charter breach?
Email addresses, job titles, names, phone numbers and physical addresses. The job titles came from employee directory records.
Is it true that 42 million records were taken?
That is the attackers' claim, which Charter has not confirmed. HIBP verified 4,851,517 unique accounts.
Is there a settlement?
No settlement has been reported. Law firms have announced investigations into possible class action claims.
Sources
- Have I Been Pwned: Charter
- Have I Been Pwned: Charter Data Breach · haveibeenpwned.com
- techlicious.com/blog/spectrum-charter-data-breach-shinyhunters-2026/
- Cases - Scott+Scott · scott-scott.com
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we'll re-check it.
What changed
- Page text rewritten in plainer language; no facts changed.
