Telecom operator AT&T has disclosed a significant data breach on Friday, revealing that the call and text records of approximately 109 million customer accounts were illegally downloaded in April.
The breach involved data from May 2022 to October 2022, impacting nearly all of AT&T’s cellular and landline customers. AT&T says customers of MVNOs were also impacted. The compromised information includes the records of calls and texts but does not contain the content of these communications or sensitive personal information like social security numbers.
The cyber security attack raises questions whether AT&T is not taking cyber security seriously or not.
AT&T has made $122.428 billion in revenue from its cusotmers and generated $23.461 in net income in 2023. AT&T has an annual capital expenditure of $17.853 billion to develop networks.
AT&T has Rich Baich, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Jeremy Legg, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), to look at cyber security issues. AT&T has a technology partner to control cyber security issues. But AT&T failed.
AT&T says its CISO, who has more than 20 years of experience in cyber security matters, is leading a large team of highly trained security professionals across multiple countries.
Spending on cyber security will reach $87 billion in 2024, according to analysts at Canalys. The growth in cyber security spending will be 9 percent.
WHAT HAPPENED
The U.S. telecom giant stated that the FBI is investigating the incident, and at least one individual has been arrested in connection with the breach. The unauthorized access occurred through a third-party cloud platform, where AT&T’s call logs were stored. The breach was identified on April 19, with hackers allegedly exfiltrating data between April 14 and April 25.
AT&T said it believes that hackers accessed an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform and, between April 14 and April 25, 2024, exfiltrated files containing AT&T records of customer call and text interactions that occurred between approximately May 1 and October 31, 2022, as well as on January 2, 2023. AT&T did not reveal the name of the cloud platform.
In response to the breach, AT&T has taken measures to close the point of unlawful access and plans to notify affected customers. The company emphasized that it is working closely with law enforcement and has delayed public notification based on the Justice Department’s guidance. Despite the breach, AT&T does not believe that the stolen data is publicly available.
In March, AT&T was also investigating another data incident where a dataset containing information from around 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders appeared on the dark web. This dataset was believed to be from 2019 or earlier, Reuters news report said.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is conducting a separate investigation into the breach.
In a related move, AT&T announced that it would open its tap-and-go mobile payments system to competitors, potentially increasing security measures and enhancing customer trust.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
