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AT&T Attack Reveals 73 Million Customer Records Exposed On The Dark Web
AT&T Attack Reveals 73 Million Customer Records Exposed On The Dark Web
In a statement released by the largest telecommunications company in the United States, AT&T, they shared that they recently discovered a dataset for sale on the “dark web” that contained information for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million former users, totaling approximately 73 million affected accounts.
AT&T shared that the data released contained passcodes (PINs) and Social Security numbers from 2019 or earlier and did not contain any other personal financial information or call history but could include e-mail and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and birthdates.
AT&T has contacted all customers via e-mail or mail to let them know of the breach and reset their passcodes. If you’re an AT&T customer, you must be highly critical of any e-mail asking you to change your password. Please make sure it is from AT&T, as it’s suspected other cybercriminals will attempt to capitalize on this issue and send out fake e-mails with malicious links, hoping someone will click on them. If you’re concerned about it being a phony e-mail, call AT&T support and ask them to send another reset link while you’re on the phone.
As for the cause of the breach, it’s still unknown whether the data breach originated from AT&T or one of its vendors, but AT&T has launched an investigation. It will likely hire computer forensics specialists to find the cause of the incident.
The organization will also have to scrub any installed malware from the software that runs its customer account system without disrupting unaffected customer service. This will be an expensive issue between the investigation, cleaning up the problems, lawsuits, legal fees, and more.
That’s why at Paradise Computer Services & Repair, we talk about being proactive with cybersecurity so often. While no solution is 100% impenetrable, most are strong enough to keep most hackers out. It is way more costly to deal with the effects of a cyber-attack than it is to prevent one in the first place.
For a comprehensive analysis of your network's security and expert advice on how to enhance it, request a FREE Security Assessment from our team of cybersecurity experts. We're here to help you safeguard your data and maintain your customers’ trust.
Hackers will do whatever it takes to break into your network. Your job as the CEO is to do whatever it takes to keep them out. We are here to help! Click here to book your Security Risk Assessment with one of our cybersecurity experts, or call our office at 941-493-5126.
