AT&T acknowledges data leak that hit 73 million current and former users

AT&T reset passcodes for thousands and thousands of shoppers after acknowledging a large leak involving the info of 73 million present and former subscribers.

“Primarily based on our preliminary evaluation, the info set seems to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting roughly 7.6 million present AT&T account holders and roughly 65.4 million former account holders,” AT&T mentioned in an update posted to its web site on Saturday.

An AT&T support article mentioned the service is “reaching out to all 7.6 million impacted prospects and have reset their passcodes. As well as, we can be speaking with present and former account holders with compromised delicate private info.” AT&T mentioned the leaked info assorted by buyer however included full names, e mail addresses, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, Social Safety numbers, dates of beginning, AT&T account numbers, and passcodes.

AT&T’s acknowledgement of the leak described it as “AT&T data-specific fields [that] had been contained in a knowledge set launched on the darkish net.” However the identical information seems to be on the open net as effectively. As safety researcher Troy Hunt wrote, the info is “on the market in plain sight on a public discussion board simply accessed by a traditional net browser.”

The hacking discussion board has a public model accessible with any browser and a hidden service that requires a Tor community connection. Primarily based on discussion board posts we seen at present, the leak appears to have appeared on each the general public and Tor variations of the hacking discussion board on March 17 of this 12 months. Viewing the AT&T information requires a hacking discussion board account and web site “credit” that may be bought or earned by posting on the discussion board.

We contacted AT&T at present and can replace this text if we get a response.

49 million e mail addresses

Hunt’s put up on March 19 mentioned the leaked info included a file with 73,481,539 strains of information that contained 49,102,176 distinctive e mail addresses. One other file with decrypted Social Safety numbers had 43,989,217 strains, he wrote.

Hunt, who runs the “Have I Been Pwned” database that permits you to verify in case your e mail was in a knowledge breach, says the 49 million e mail addresses within the AT&T leak have been added to his database.

BleepingComputer covered the leak two weeks in the past, writing that it’s the identical information concerned in a 2021 incident wherein a hacker shared samples of the info and tried to promote the whole information set for $1 million. In 2021, AT&T told BleepingComputer that “the knowledge that appeared in an Web chat room doesn’t seem to have come from our techniques.”

AT&T maintained that place final month. “AT&T continues to inform BleepingComputer at present that they nonetheless see no proof of a breach of their techniques and nonetheless imagine that this information didn’t originate from them,” the information web site’s March 17, 2024, article mentioned.

AT&T says information might have come from itself or vendor

AT&T’s replace on March 30 acknowledged that the info might have come from AT&T itself, however mentioned it additionally might have come from an AT&T vendor:

AT&T has decided that AT&T data-specific fields had been contained in a knowledge set launched on the darkish net roughly two weeks in the past. Whereas AT&T has made this willpower, it’s not but recognized whether or not the info in these fields originated from AT&T or one among its distributors. With respect to the steadiness of the info set, which incorporates private info corresponding to Social Safety numbers, the supply of the info remains to be being assessed.

“Presently, AT&T doesn’t have proof of unauthorized entry to its techniques leading to exfiltration of the info set,” the corporate replace additionally mentioned. AT&T mentioned it “is speaking proactively with these impacted and can be providing credit score monitoring at our expense the place relevant.”

AT&T mentioned the passcodes that it reset are typically 4 digits and are completely different from AT&T account passwords. The passcodes are used when calling buyer help, when managing an account at a retail retailer, and when signing in to the AT&T web site “should you’ve chosen further safety.”