Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- AT&T has confirmed that the data of 73 million current and former customers has been compromised on the dark web.
- The company denies any system breaches.
- The carrier has also started mass resetting passcodes for customer accounts.
AT&T confirmed on Saturday that the customer data of 73 million users had been leaked online. Personal information compromised includes social security numbers, AT&T account numbers and passcodes, and contact details of existing and former customers.
“AT&T has launched a robust investigation by internal and external cybersecurity experts. Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to pre-date 2019 and represents approximately 7.6 million current AT&T employees. “This is affecting account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders,” the network said in a statement over the weekend.
For AT&T, one of the largest carriers in the United States, suffering a data breach of this magnitude would be extremely embarrassing and could prompt customers to cancel their services. However, the company denied unauthorized access to its systems as the reason for the breach.
“AT&T has no evidence of unauthorized access to its systems that resulted in the data set being compromised. It is still unclear whether the data in these areas comes from AT&T or its vendor. ” the network reported. tech crunch.
The publication also reports that the carrier has begun mass passcode resets to further prevent access to compromised AT&T customer accounts. An AT&T account passcode is a four-digit number used to access your customer account at retail stores, online, and when calling customer care.
“We encourage our customers to remain vigilant by monitoring account activity and credit reports. Set up free fraud alerts from credit reporting agencies nationwide (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) You can also request and review your free credit report at any time through Freecreditreport.com,” AT&T wrote in a post explaining how customers can protect their accounts. The company is also encouraging customers to reset their AT&T passcodes.
The data breach was first discovered in 2021 when hackers posted a small sample of the leaked data. Two weeks ago, a data seller posted details of all 73 million compromised accounts and customers verified that the information was theirs. This is the first time AT&T has publicly acknowledged a data breach.
