Data belonging to nearly all of telecom giant AT&T’s customers was dumped onto a third-party platform following a security breach in 2022, the company said Friday, as cyberattacks against businesses, schools and healthcare systems continue to spread around the world.
The breach affected AT&T wireless customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators that use AT&T’s wireless network, and landline customers who interacted with those wireless numbers.
AT&T said it does not believe the data is currently publicly available.
“The data does not include the content of calls or text messages, personal information such as social security number, date of birth or other personally identifiable information,” AT&T said in a statement Friday.
The data at risk also does not include information typically seen in usage details, such as the time stamp of calls or text messages or customer names, the company added. However, AT&T clarified that there are often ways to use publicly available online tools to find the name associated with a specific phone number.
An internal investigation determined that the data at risk included files containing AT&T call and text message records between May 1, 2022, and October 31, 2022.
AT&T has more than 100 million customers in the United States and nearly 2.5 million business accounts.
The company announced Friday that it has launched an investigation and is engaging with cybersecurity experts to understand the nature and scope of the breach.
The data at risk also includes records for a small number of customers from January 2023. The records identify the phone numbers with which an AT&T or mobile virtual network operator cell phone number interacted during that period. A subset of the records also includes one or more site identification numbers related to the interactions.
Source: With information from AP
