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AT&T confirms data of 73 million customers leaked on dark web, investigation ongoing
- AT&T has confirmed that data of 73 million existing and former customers has leaked on the dark web.
- The company has denied any breach of its systems.
- The carrier has also initiated a mass reset of customer account passcodes.
On Saturday, AT&T confirmed that customer data of 73 million users has been leaked online. The compromised personal information includes social security numbers, AT&T account numbers and passcodes, and contact details of existing and previous customers.
“AT&T has launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts. Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders,” the network said in a statement over the weekend.
Being one of the largest carriers in the US, it is quite an embarrassment for AT&T to suffer a data leak of this magnitude, and could prompt customers to cancel the service. However, the company denied any unauthorized access to its systems as the reason for the breach.
“AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set. It is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors.” the network told TechCrunch.
The publication also reports that the carrier has initiated a mass passcode reset to further prevent access to leaked AT&T customer accounts. AT&T account passcodes are four-digit numbers used to access customer accounts in retail stores, online, and while calling customer care.
“We encourage customers to remain vigilant by monitoring account activity and credit reports. You can set up free fraud alerts from nationwide credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can also request and review your free credit report at any time via Freecreditreport.com,” AT&T wrote in a post explaining how customers can safeguard their accounts. The company is also encouraging customers to reset their AT&T passcode.
The data leak was first discovered when a hacker posted a small sample of the leaked data in 2021. Two weeks ago, a data seller posted details of all the 73 million compromised accounts, with customers verifying that the information belonged to them. This is the first time AT&T has officially acknowledged the data leak.