AT&T, the US telecommunications giant, is currently investigating a significant data breach affecting both current and former customers after discovering personal data from over 70 million individuals on the dark web.
The data set, which emerged approximately two weeks ago, contains sensitive information such as social security numbers and passcodes. While AT&T is still assessing the source of the data, it appears to date back to 2019 or earlier.
The breach affects approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. Besides social security numbers, other compromised data may include names, email addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and AT&T account numbers.
AT&T has taken swift action in response to the breach, resetting passcodes for affected users and launching a comprehensive investigation with internal and external cybersecurity experts. The company is proactively communicating with impacted individuals and offering credit monitoring where applicable.
While the compromised data does not seem to include financial information or call history, its discovery raises concerns about potential identity theft and fraud. This incident follows a previous outage in February that affected thousands of AT&T’s wireless customers, though the company assures that the breach has not materially impacted its operations.
As AT&T works to address the breach and secure its systems, cybersecurity experts emphasize the importance of vigilance and caution among affected individuals to mitigate any potential risks associated with the compromised data.
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