Telecommunications giant AT&T has confirmed, finally, that seventy three million current and former customers have been caught up in a horrifying massive dark web data leak. Took them long enough.
AT&T perhaps could have stopped three years of stolen identity crimes if they acted earlier. Apparently, in 2021, a hacker put a database containing the personal details of these seventy million AT&T customers up for sale. Back then, AT&T denied the leak was data related. And then they denied it again in March of 2024 when the data was put up for sale on an online cybercrime forum. This is not where the good guys converge. A cybercrime forum is an online discussion board accessible on the dark web where fraudsters discuss new tactics, techniques, and tools. The latest and greatest news on how to commit fraud. And this seller claimed that this data for sale was stolen from AT&T three years prior.
While AT&T has since revised its position, it wrestles with the thorny problem of investigating what happened on its computers three years ago. It is not yet known whether the data in those fields originated from AT&T or one of its vendors. They do know that the leaked data included names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, dates of birth, and social security numbers. Just the kind of stuff shoppers on the dark web are looking for.
Data which can be used for illegal activity by anonymous criminals. AT&T is now doing its due diligence for the 7.6 million current customers. All account passcodes have been reset and offering credit monitoring “where applicable”. Which leaves out 65.4 million former account holders who have also been victimized. And while some of the personal identifying information may have changed for all these victims, Social Security numbers don’t, which now makes them victims for life.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article” AT&T says personal data from 73 million current and former account holders leaked onto dark web” published by CNN on March 30, 2024.
AT&T has launched an investigation into the source of a data leak that includes personal information of 73 million current and former customers.
In a news release Saturday morning, the telecommunications giant said the data was “released on the dark web approximately two weeks ago,” and contains information such as account holders’ Social Security numbers.
