A dataset containing personal information, including social security numbers, of 73 million current and former AT&T customers has been published on the telecom giant's dark web. said on saturday.
The dataset appeared on the dark web about two weeks ago.the It is unknown whether This release came either from AT&T itself, the world's fourth largest telecommunications company, or from one of its vendors.
“AT&T has launched a robust investigation with the assistance of internal and external cybersecurity experts,” the company said in a press release. “Based on our preliminary analysis, this dataset appears to date back to 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders. ”
AT&T has not yet determined whether a malicious organization has infiltrated its systems to steal data. Outside cybersecurity experts were brought in to help investigate the breach, but the company said it did not have a material impact on its business.
AT&T's tough start to 2024
Last month, AT&T suffered a massive outage that affected millions of customers. Towards the end of February, Approximately 1.5 million customers Some of the largest wireless providers in the United States have filed outage reports. AT&T had promised he would send a $5 credit to those affected by the outage, but in total, the cost was minimal. If AT&T only returned the credits to these 1.5 million customers, it would have spent $7.5 million.
Laura Bratton contributed to this article.
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