AT&T announced on Friday that data for almost all of its customers in 2022 was breached by hackers. The breach involved the records of calls and texts between May and October of 2022 being illegally downloaded by what AT&T described as “threat actors.” The telecom company discovered the breach in April and has been collaborating with cybersecurity experts to assess the nature and extent of the criminal activity. AT&T clarified that only phone numbers and cell site IDs were compromised, not sensitive data like the content of messages, Social Security numbers, or birth dates. However, they did not guarantee that the hackers couldn’t find customers’ names.
“We are working with law enforcement to apprehend those involved in this incident,” the company said in a statement on Friday. AT&T noted that at least one person has been arrested in connection with the breach.
The company highlighted that the breach occurred through a third-party cloud provider, not AT&T’s internal servers. According to Bloomberg, the compromised platform is reportedly Snowflake. AT&T accessed data through its workspace on this separate cloud platform.
AT&T stated in an SEC filing that the breach has not had a material impact on its operations and is not expected to significantly affect its financial condition or results.
Some key numbers include:
– AT&T had 242 million wireless customers in the U.S. as of 2023, according to Statista.
– Hackers had access to almost all AT&T customer call logs for six months in 2022.
– AT&T generated $30 billion in revenues in the first quarter of 2024.
– AT&T’s stock price fell by 1.14% following news of the hack.
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