AT&T announced on Friday that “nearly all” of its customers in 2022 had their data breached by hackers. The telecom company disclosed that call and text records from May to October 2022 were illegally downloaded by “threat actors.” AT&T discovered the breach in April and has been working with cybersecurity experts to determine the extent of the criminal activity. The company clarified that only telephone numbers and cell site IDs were obtained by the hackers, not other sensitive information like the content of texts, Social Security numbers, or birth dates. However, AT&T did not rule out the possibility that hackers could find customers’ names.
“We are collaborating with law enforcement to apprehend those responsible for the incident,” the company said in a statement on Friday. “We understand that at least one individual has been apprehended.”
AT&T highlighted that the breach occurred through a third-party cloud provider and not its own servers. The affected data was accessed through AT&T’s workspace on a separate cloud platform, which Bloomberg identified as Snowflake.
“AT&T’s operations have not been materially impacted by this incident, and the company does not believe it will affect its financial condition or operational results,” AT&T stated in an SEC filing.
Key Numbers:
– 242 million: The number of wireless AT&T customers in the U.S. as of 2023, according to Statista.
– 6: The number of months in 2022 during which hackers accessed AT&T customer call logs.
– $30 billion: AT&T’s revenues in the first quarter of 2024.
– 1.14%: The decrease in AT&T’s stock price following news of the hack.