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Two weeks ago, AT&T announced an investigation into an incident that exposed millions of customers’ information on the dark web, which was part of an internet attack accessible through special software.
The largest phone company has now taken significant steps to reset the passwords of approximately 7.6 million users affected by the breach. The company also contacted 65.4 million former account holders whose information was still compromised.
In a press release on Saturday, AT&T assured stakeholders that the incident did not have a significant impact on its operations. A preliminary review indicates that the submitted data dates to approximately 2019 or earlier and includes personal information such as name, address, phone number, date of birth and Social Security number. Importantly, sensitive information does not include personal financial or contact information.
AT&T is actively contacting affected customers and will be notified via email. The company advises affected individuals to create a fraud alert number and carefully monitor their activity and credit reports. However, the source of the leak is not yet clear at this stage.
The incident occurred after AT&T customers experienced a mobile phone outage in February, and the company explained that this was not a technical problem, but a system problem, caused by cyber attacks. CEO John Stankey later issued an apology and offered consumer credit to users affected by the outage.
Description: AT&T’s ongoing investigation into recent events is being conducted to determine the cause of the data breach and whether it was justified.