AT&T, the telecommunications company, stated that a dataset uncovered on the “dark web” contains Social Security numbers for about 7.6 million current account users and 65.4 million previous account holders.
AT&T announced that it has begun contacting millions of customers about a recent online data breach.
The telecommunications giant announced on Saturday that a dataset discovered on the “dark web” contains Social Security numbers for about 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and 65.4 million past account holders.
The organization stated that it has already reset the passwords of current users and will communicate with account holders whose sensitive personal information was exposed.
It is unclear whether the data “originated from AT&T or one of its vendors,” according to a company statement. According to the report, the exposed data dates back to 2019 or earlier and does not appear to contain financial information or call history. In addition to passcodes and Social Security numbers, it may contain email and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates.
While the data leaked on a hacking site over two weeks ago, cybersecurity analyst Troy Hunt claimed it closely mirrors a previous data breach that occurred in 2021 but was never recognized by AT&T.
“If they assess this and make the wrong decision, we’ve had years pass without them being able to notify impacted customers,” said Hunt, founder of an Australia-based website for warning people when their personal information has been exposed.
The Dallas-based corporation is not dealing with its first difficulty this year. An outage in February knocked out cellular connectivity for thousands of US users. AT&T, at the time, blamed the incident on a technical coding issue rather than a hostile attempt.
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