The US largest cell phone carrier revealed that the personal data of 73 million subscribers of AT&T has been exposed on the darknet.
AT&T has initiated a thorough investigation with the help of both internal and external cybersecurity experts.
The preliminary findings suggest that the data breach dates back to 2019 or before, affecting around 7.6 million current subscribers and 65.4 million former users.
The compromised data includes sensitive information such as names and social security numbers. The breach was detected approximately two weeks ago, yet the origin of the leak remains unidentified. AT&T assured that this incident has not impacted its operations.
In February, AT&T experienced a significant operational interruption, which was scrutinized by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and AT&T.
Data breaches have afflicted numerous US leading companies, with AT&T’s primary competitors, Verizon and T-Mobile, also encountering multiple security breaches over the years.
Notably, T-Mobile has suffered at least eight breaches since 2018, one of which, in 2021, resulted in the theft of data from millions of its customers.
Additionally, a recent cybersecurity incident involving a third-party service provider potentially compromised American Express cardholders’ account information.
Last month, AT&T faced critical scrutiny following a widespread cellphone service outage that impacted over 1.7 million customers and disrupted emergency 911 services in several states, which the company attributed to a technical fault rather than a cyberattack.
China recently accused Washington of threatening global security after a report by Reuters revealed that SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, was making hundreds of spy satellites for a US intelligence agency.
