Missed! AT&T Customer Data Spread on Dark Web, Here's the Impact!
America's largest mobile operator AT&T experienced a data leak and was sold on the dark web. Photo: Reuters
- America's largest telecommunications operator, AT&T, admits it missed out. Because, there is raw data on their customers that is released on the "dark web". In fact, they themselves did not find any data leaks.
This customer data was sold on the “dark web” about 2 weeks ago. The operator with 241 million customers said that the impact was already being felt by around 7.6 million account holders as well as 65.4 million former account holders.
This is based on the company's initial analysis of the incident.
According to AT&T, the data is from 2019 or earlier. From internal audits, they themselves have no evidence of unauthorized access to company systems as a result of the incident. This means that there are no attacks from cybercriminals that result in data leaks.
They are currently investigating whether the leaked data actually came from AT&T, or vice versa from one of their vendors.
To Reuters, AT&T also said that the incident did not have a material impact on the company's operations. They said they are contacting affected parties and will offer credit monitoring if necessary. AT&T itself re-released customer account password settings after a leak, as reported by TechCrunch, Saturday (30/3). AT&T did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for further comment.
The wireless carrier's 5G network covers approximately 290 million people across the United States.
In February 2024, AT&T experienced an outage that disrupted calls and text messages for thousands of US users. Even triggering a federal investigation.