Two U.S. senators have demanded answers from AT&T regarding a significant hacking incident in April, which resulted in the illegal downloading of approximately 109 million customer accounts.
Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat and chair of the subcommittee on investigations, and Republican Josh Hawley sought detailed information from AT&T. This follows AT&T’s disclosure that call logs were copied from its workspace on Snowflake, which provides cloud-based data storage and analytics service to its customers. This breach involved nearly six months of customer call and text data from 2022, Reuters news report said.
AT&T reveals that it’s working with law enforcement in its efforts to arrest those involved in the incident. For more information, customers can visit att.com/DataIncident.
AT&T, the leading wireless operator in the United States, earlier said the compromised data includes files containing AT&T records of calls and texts of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) using AT&T’s wireless network, as well as AT&T’s landline customers who interacted with those cellular numbers.
In a letter to AT&T CEO John Stankey, the senators highlighted the severe implications of the breach. “The stolen information can easily provide cybercriminals, spies, and stalkers a logbook of the communications and activities of AT&T customers over several months, including where those customers live and traveled — a stunning and dangerous breach of its customers’ privacy and intrusion into their personal lives,” they stated. The senators also inquired whether AT&T plans to compensate affected consumers.
AT&T is yet to reveal its compensation plans. AT&T, which makes huge investment in telecom network for customer experience, confirmed it would respond directly to the senators. However, the senators expressed concern that the stolen data could be auctioned off to criminals and foreign intelligence agencies.
Snowflake
Snowflake, which has 9,800 customers, is aiming to achieve revenue target of $3.3 billion during fiscal 2025. Its customers including AT&T use Snowflake AI Data Cloud to collaborate with data, build data applications and pull ahead of their competitors. Snowflake has not yet responded to requests for comment.
In a letter to Snowflake, the senators voiced concerns about other recent data breaches affecting Snowflake clients. “The recent AT&T disclosure — three months after the breach and following other announced breaches — raises concerns that we still do not know the full scope or impact of the campaign targeting Snowflake customers,” they wrote.
The FBI is currently investigating the breach, and AT&T has reported that at least one individual has been arrested in connection with the incident. This breach follows a significant ransomware attack in February on UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit, which potentially exposed the private data of an estimated one-third of the U.S. population.
In 2024, a hack of Snowflake resulted in data breaches of Ticketmaster, Advance Auto Parts, Santander Bank, LendingTree, among others, according to information available on Wikipedia.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
