AT&T Hacking Incident Exposes Data of 109 Million Customers

AT&T announced on Friday that a significant hacking incident occurred in April, illegally downloading data from approximately 109 million customer accounts. The breach involved records of calls and texts from 2022, marking a major breach of consumer communication records.

Details of the AT&T data Breach:

The compromised data includes AT&T records of calls and texts for nearly all of AT&T’s cellular and landline customers interacting with those cellular numbers between May and October 2022. However, it does not include the content of calls or texts or personal information like social security numbers.

Hackers accessed and exfiltrated the data between April 14 and 25. The compromised data also includes records from January 2, 2023, for a small number of customers. The data was copied from AT&T’s workspace on a third-party cloud platform.

Investigation and Response:

The FBI is investigating the breach, and at least one person has been arrested. The FBI worked with AT&T and the Justice Department, delaying public disclosure of the hack to assist with the investigation and incident-response efforts.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also conducting an ongoing investigation. AT&T has closed the point of unlawful access and stated that it does not believe the data is publicly available.

AT&T shares dropped 1.2% in early trading following the announcement.

Recent Breach History:

In March, AT&T investigated a data set released on the “dark web,” which appeared to be from 2019 or earlier and affected approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders.

AT&T emphasized its cooperation with the FBI and DOJ throughout the investigation and assured customers that it takes such security incidents very seriously. The company is committed to ensuring the security of its customers’ information and is working diligently to prevent future breaches.