Brightspeed Probes Claimed Hack of Data on 1 Million U.S. Fiber Customers
Brightspeed, a major U.S. fiber broadband provider serving rural and suburban areas in 20 states, says it is investigating what it calls a potential cybersecurity event after a hacking group known as Crimson Collective claimed on Telegram to have stolen sensitive data tied to more than one million residential customers. The group alleges it accessed customer names, emails, phone numbers, home and billing addresses, account identifiers, payment histories with partial card details, and appointment and order records, and has threatened to release samples if the company does not respond. Brightspeed has not confirmed a breach but told BleepingComputer it is rigorously monitoring threats, trying to understand what happened, and will inform customers, employees and authorities as more facts are known, though it has not yet posted a public notice on its own channels. Crimson Collective has a recent track record, including a 2025 GitLab breach at Red Hat that cascaded into a Nissan customer-data exposure, which makes the new claims harder to dismiss even as they remain unverified. If accurate, the combination of personally identifiable and partial financial data would create serious risks of identity theft, phishing and account fraud for affected subscribers in some of the country’s most broadband‑dependent communities.
📌 Key Facts
- Hacking group Crimson Collective claims it stole data on more than one million Brightspeed residential customers and posted extortion threats on Telegram.
- The group says the data set includes names, emails, phone numbers, physical and billing addresses, account IDs, payment history with partial card data, and appointment/order information.
- Brightspeed has not confirmed a breach but acknowledges a 'potential cybersecurity event' and says it is actively investigating and monitoring threats, with no formal breach notice yet on its website or social media.
- Crimson Collective previously breached a Red Hat GitLab instance in 2025, in a case that later led to Nissan disclosing exposure of about 21,000 Japanese customers’ data.
📊 Relevant Data
In November 2024, Chinese hackers known as Salt Typhoon breached at least eight U.S. telecommunications providers, as well as providers in more than twenty other countries.
Significant Cyber Incidents | Strategic Technologies Program — CSIS
In 2023, 73% of adults living in rural areas had access to home broadband, compared to 77% in urban areas and 86% in suburban areas.
The Urban–Rural Digital Divide in Internet Access and Online ... — Wiley Online Library
Rural America remains predominantly non-Hispanic White, with 35 million White residents constituting 76 percent of the rural population according to 2020 census data.
Racial and Ethnic Diversity of Rural Population Grows by Nearly 20% — Daily Yonder
Black, Hispanic and Asian adults are more likely than White adults to say they have lost money because of an online scam or attack, according to a 2025 survey.
Online Scams and Attacks in America Today — Pew Research Center
In 2021, the prevalence of identity-theft victimization was higher among White persons (10%) than among Black (8%) or Hispanic (6%) persons.
Victims of Identity Theft, 2021 — Bureau of Justice Statistics
📰 Source Timeline (1)
Follow how coverage of this story developed over time