July 13, 2024 – AT&T disclosed on Friday that hackers had breached a third-party cloud platform, compromising a significant amount of customer data. The stolen information encompassed phone numbers of cellular and landline customers, along with their call and text records spanning a six-month period from May 1, 2022, to October 31, 2022.
Additionally, the compromised data included a small, unspecified number of new records generated by customers after January 2, 2023, as well as call records of customers from other operators relying on AT&T’s network. Notably, some of these records contained base station identification numbers linked to calls and texts, which can roughly pinpoint the location where a call or text was sent.
However, AT&T clarified that the breached data did not include the content of any calls or texts, nor did it contain timestamps or sensitive personal details like social security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifying information.
The telecommunications giant stated that it became aware of the data leak on April 19 and confirmed that this incident was unrelated to an earlier security breach in March.
Currently, AT&T believes the compromised data has not been made public and is collaborating with law enforcement to identify and apprehend those responsible.
Cybersecurity researchers from incident response company Mandiant indicated that the hacking group, primarily based in the United States, is motivated primarily by financial gain.
