Texas utility CenterPoint Energy has confirmed a data breach after a hacker published customer information online and claimed to have stolen approximately 7.5 million records.
The company said an unauthorized third party obtained personal information through one of its external-facing systems and has brought in cybersecurity experts to investigate the intrusion.
The hacker, who uses the name “Lovely,” claims to have accessed millions of customer records containing names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, account numbers and other information. Samples of the allegedly stolen data were posted publicly, prompting CenterPoint to investigate and confirm that customer information had been compromised.
CenterPoint has not confirmed the hacker’s estimate of 7.5 million records and is still determining the number of customers and types of information affected. The company provides electricity and natural gas to millions of customers across several states, including Texas, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio.
Jeremiah Fowler, Researcher for Black Hills Information Security:
“I have seen this unfortunate scenario play out far too often over the last few years when organizations outsource technology, development, customer support, data processing, or other business functions. Once the data is out of your control the risks are increased of an exposure and expands the potential attack surface. At the end of the day, even if the data is exposed through a contractor, vendor, or third-party system, they are still your customers and they trusted your organization with their information.
“Customer information is valuable because it can create a relationship of trust and increase the success rate of social engineering or phishing attempts. If criminals know your account number, payment amounts, support requests, and other details that only you and the service provider should know, this creates potentially dangerous scenario to build trust. Organizations may outsource services, but they are still responsible for the data protection of their customers and it is crucial that they know where information is stored, how it is transmitted, who can access it, how long it is retained, and ensure that the systems are independently audited for vulnerabilities.”
John Strand, Owner, Black Hills Information Security:
“This is a breach we need to watch closely because I think it’s going to break one of two ways. Either there was a customer-facing application exposed to the internet that was compromised, or this data was sitting on a service that never should have been exposed to the internet in the first place.
“That second possibility is particularly interesting because it’s an area I’ve been researching quite a bit lately. There are an incredible number of services exposed directly to the internet that have absolutely no reason to be accessible for customer or client interactions.
“Right now, the SEC filing tells us the breach involved an external service, but that still leaves the big question unanswered. Was this an application that legitimately needed to be internet-facing and was compromised, or was sensitive data sitting somewhere that never should have been exposed at all? That distinction matters, and we’ll need more information about the breach before we know which one happened.”
There needs to be more details here as there’s a lot of questions that are left unanswered. Hopefully we get those answers.
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This entry was posted on September 16, 2026 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Hacker claims 7.5M customer records stolen from CenterPoint Energy
Texas utility CenterPoint Energy has confirmed a data breach after a hacker published customer information online and claimed to have stolen approximately 7.5 million records.
The company said an unauthorized third party obtained personal information through one of its external-facing systems and has brought in cybersecurity experts to investigate the intrusion.
The hacker, who uses the name “Lovely,” claims to have accessed millions of customer records containing names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, account numbers and other information. Samples of the allegedly stolen data were posted publicly, prompting CenterPoint to investigate and confirm that customer information had been compromised.
CenterPoint has not confirmed the hacker’s estimate of 7.5 million records and is still determining the number of customers and types of information affected. The company provides electricity and natural gas to millions of customers across several states, including Texas, Indiana, Minnesota and Ohio.
Jeremiah Fowler, Researcher for Black Hills Information Security:
“I have seen this unfortunate scenario play out far too often over the last few years when organizations outsource technology, development, customer support, data processing, or other business functions. Once the data is out of your control the risks are increased of an exposure and expands the potential attack surface. At the end of the day, even if the data is exposed through a contractor, vendor, or third-party system, they are still your customers and they trusted your organization with their information.
“Customer information is valuable because it can create a relationship of trust and increase the success rate of social engineering or phishing attempts. If criminals know your account number, payment amounts, support requests, and other details that only you and the service provider should know, this creates potentially dangerous scenario to build trust. Organizations may outsource services, but they are still responsible for the data protection of their customers and it is crucial that they know where information is stored, how it is transmitted, who can access it, how long it is retained, and ensure that the systems are independently audited for vulnerabilities.”
John Strand, Owner, Black Hills Information Security:
“This is a breach we need to watch closely because I think it’s going to break one of two ways. Either there was a customer-facing application exposed to the internet that was compromised, or this data was sitting on a service that never should have been exposed to the internet in the first place.
“That second possibility is particularly interesting because it’s an area I’ve been researching quite a bit lately. There are an incredible number of services exposed directly to the internet that have absolutely no reason to be accessible for customer or client interactions.
“Right now, the SEC filing tells us the breach involved an external service, but that still leaves the big question unanswered. Was this an application that legitimately needed to be internet-facing and was compromised, or was sensitive data sitting somewhere that never should have been exposed at all? That distinction matters, and we’ll need more information about the breach before we know which one happened.”
There needs to be more details here as there’s a lot of questions that are left unanswered. Hopefully we get those answers.
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This entry was posted on September 16, 2026 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Hacked. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.