Charter Communications calls Van Nuys fiber cuts ‘domestic terrorism’

VAN NUYS, Calif. (KESQ) - Charter Communications has deemed a June 15 attack on its communications network in Van Nuys an act of domestic terrorism, "based on the nature of the fiber cuts, extent of damage and make-up of impacted customers."  

According to the company, the early morning attack severed 13 cables, including more than 2,600 individual fibers. The company said it also disrupted connectivity and impacted redundancy to emergency services, including a U.S. military base, emergency dispatch and 911 communication services, local fire and police departments, financial institutions, court buildings, health care facilities and hospitals, educational institutions, as well as cell towers providing mobile services.

In total, more than 50,000 residential customers and more than 500 business customers were affected for up to 30 hours.   

"These criminal attacks on our country's vital communications networks are intentional and cause outages that put lives at risk,'' Charter President and CEO Chris Winfrey said in a statement. "This is a pervasive and persistent threat to American families and businesses across the country that cannot be tolerated, and such life-threatening events should be declared acts of domestic terrorism and prosecuted accordingly.  

Los Angeles City Councilman John Lee said the alleged crime "requires immediate attention from federal and state legislation classifying these attacks as a felony, dedicated engagement from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and swift, aggressive prosecution of those criminals causing the perilous situation that results from these outages."   

Lee added that the "rise in deliberate attacks on critical communications infrastructure poses a significant threat to national security, with resulting outages impacting military bases and emergency services while imposing substantial financial burdens on taxpayers and local governments."

The FBI in Los Angeles issued a statement saying, "The FBI is aware of the Van Nuys incident and is working with our law enforcement partners to investigate the nature of the attack, to include the motive. No suspect has been identified at this time. Anyone with information should contact law enforcement. The FBI can be reached at 1-800 CALL-FBI, or online at tips.fbi.gov."  

The Los Angeles Police Department, however, issued a statement saying the attack was not believed to have been a case of terrorism.   

"The incident involving the severing of fiber optic cables in Van Nuys on June 15, 2025, is being investigated as a case of felony vandalism," according to the department. "Based on the evidence collected and the circumstances observed at the scene, this incident is not being treated as an act of domestic terrorism."  

According to Charter, between June and December 2024, the telecommunications industry suffered nearly 6,000 intentional infrastructure attacks, putting access to life-saving public resources at risk for more than 1.5 million American families and businesses.  

The company is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information related to these criminal infrastructure attacks that leads to an arrest. Anyone with information can contact Spectrum at 833-404-TIPS (8477) or reach out to local law enforcement.