In a startling revelation, AT&T has disclosed a major cybersecurity incident where data from approximately 109 million customer accounts was illegally downloaded. The breach, which occurred in April, involved records of calls and texts from 2022, impacting nearly all of AT&T’s cellular and landline customers.
The U.S. telecom giant announced on Friday that the FBI is actively investigating the breach, with at least one suspect already in custody. The compromised data was copied from a third-party cloud platform, marking a significant breach of consumer communication records.
This incident adds to the growing list of major hacks affecting millions of Americans. Earlier this year, UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit faced a ransomware attack, potentially exposing private data of about one-third of the U.S. population.
Despite the breach, AT&T assured that the stolen data does not include the content of calls or texts or sensitive personal information such as social security numbers. The company confirmed it had delayed public disclosure of the hack at the request of the Justice Department.
AT&T shares saw a 1.2% dip in early trading following the announcement. The FBI, working closely with AT&T and the Justice Department, has been sharing crucial threat intelligence to aid in the investigation and response efforts. The Federal Communications Commission is also conducting its own investigation.
AT&T revealed it first learned of the breach on April 19 when a hacker claimed to have accessed and copied call logs. An internal investigation determined that between April 14 and 25, hackers had illegally exfiltrated files containing customer call and text interaction records. These records include telephone numbers, call duration, and some cell site identification numbers.
The telecom company stated it has secured the point of access used in the breach and does not believe the data is publicly available. However, this incident follows another data leak AT&T investigated in March, which involved a data set from 2019 affecting approximately 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders.
As the FBI and other authorities continue their investigations, AT&T is working to ensure the security of its customers’ data and prevent future breaches.
