AT&T acknowledges data breach in 2019 and is resetting passcodes on customer accounts.According to reports tech crunch, the breach included customer records that affected 70 million current and former AT&T users. This is the first time AT&T has “admitted that the leaked data belonged to its customers.”
Exposed data includes customers' names, home addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and social security numbers.
AT&T's massive data breach
In addition to that personal information, the breach also includes customer account passcodes. This data is in “encrypted form,” but the passcode is “easy to crack.” As explained in tech crunchAn AT&T account passcode is “typically a four-digit number used as an additional layer of security when accessing a customer's account, such as when calling AT&T customer service at a retail store or online.”
In a statement provided to tech crunch, AT&T said it has confirmed that the dataset contains information about 7.6 million current AT&T users and 65.4 million former account holders. The company also said there was no evidence of “unauthorized access to its systems that resulted in the exfiltration of data sets.”
“AT&T has launched a robust investigation by internal and external cybersecurity experts. Based on our preliminary analysis, this dataset appears to pre-date 2019 and represents approximately 7.6 million current It affects AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders.
AT&T has no evidence of unauthorized access to its systems that led to the data set being compromised. ”
AT&T also launched a new webpage reviewing the data breach and how customers can keep their accounts safe.
“We took precautions and reset your passcode, which provides an extra layer of protection for your AT&T account,” the company said on a new webpage.
In addition to resetting the account passcodes of current users affected by the breach, AT&T said it will also be contacting “current and former account holders whose sensitive personal information was compromised.”
For more information, please visit AT&T's website. The company said it continues to “work with external cybersecurity experts to analyze the situation.”
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