AT&T notifies users of data breach and resets millions of passcodes

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AT&T mentioned it has begun notifying tens of millions of consumers concerning the theft of private knowledge not too long ago found on-line.

The telecommunications large mentioned Saturday {that a} dataset discovered on the “darkish net” incorporates info corresponding to Social Safety numbers for about 7.6 million present AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former account holders.

The corporate mentioned it has already reset the passcodes of present customers and will likely be speaking with account holders whose delicate private info was compromised.

It isn’t identified if the info “originated from AT&T or one among its distributors,” the corporate mentioned in a press release. The compromised knowledge is from 2019 or earlier and doesn’t seem to incorporate monetary info or name historical past, it mentioned. Along with passcodes and Social Safety numbers, it could embody e-mail and mailing addresses, telephone numbers and start dates.

Whereas the info surfaced on a hacking discussion board almost two weeks in the past, it intently resembles the same knowledge breach that surfaced in 2021 however which AT&T by no means acknowledged, mentioned cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt.

“In the event that they assess this they usually made the mistaken name on it, and we’ve had a course of years cross with out them with the ability to notify impacted clients,” then it is probably the corporate will quickly face class motion lawsuits, mentioned Hunt, founding father of an Australia-based web site for warning individuals when their private info has been uncovered.

An AT&T spokesperson did not instantly return a request for remark Saturday.

It isn’t the primary disaster this yr for the Dallas-based firm. An outage in February quickly knocked out cellphone service for hundreds of U.S. customers. AT&T on the time blamed the incident on a technical coding error, not a malicious assault.