The US telecom giant said in a statement that the data set found on the “dark web” included information such as social security numbers and passcodes for approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. He said that he had done so.
US telecommunications company AT&T has begun notifying millions of customers about a massive data breach of sensitive information. The Dallas-based company said it’s not yet clear whether the data originated from AT&T or one of its vendors. An investigation into the incident has begun.
What information was exposed in the breach?
advertisementWhile the nature of the breach varies by affected customer, AT&T says the information involved includes Social Security numbers and passcodes, which are typically four digits long and, unlike passwords, It is a numeric PIN. The company said names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and AT&T account numbers could also be compromised. It added that the affected data is from before 2019 and does not appear to include financial information or call history.
AT&T said it has already reset the passcodes of those affected and has begun a “thorough investigation” with internal and external cybersecurity experts.
Has AT&T ever seen a data breach like this?
US telecom giants have witnessed multiple data breaches of varying scale and impact in recent years. Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt told The Associated Press that the company said data from this latest breach surfaced on a hacking forum about two weeks ago, but that similar data surfaced in 2021 but that AT&T did not acknowledge. He said it closely resembles a violation.
“If they evaluate this, get it wrong, and let years pass without notifying affected customers, the company is likely to soon face a class action lawsuit,” founder Hunt said. ” he said. An Australian-based website that alerts you if your personal information is compromised.
Asked about the similarities, an AT&T spokesperson declined further comment.
This is not the first crisis for the telecom giant this year. The February outage affected cell phone service for thousands of users in the United States.
