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AT&T is investigating how tens of millions of former and current customers had their personal information leaked to the dark web earlier this month.
In addition to AT&T’s 7.6 million current customers affected, the telecom giant said in an announcement Saturday that about 65.4 million former customers had “some data exposed” in the data set, and that the data was released in 2019. It appears to be from before 2010.”
The data set leaked to the dark web two weeks ago included personal information such as social security numbers and data from “AT&T data-specific fields.” AT&T said the “compromised data” did not include personal financial information or call history.
The company said it is investigating the incident, but “it is still unclear whether the data in these areas is from AT&T or its vendor.”
In a memo to customers, AT&T said it contacted all 7.6 million current affected customers and reset their passcodes after learning that “many AT&T passcodes had been compromised.” .
The company contacted all current and former customers whose “sensitive personal information” had been compromised and launched “a robust investigation by internal and external cybersecurity experts.”
Did you receive a data breach alert?:Don’t ignore it. Here’s how we protect your information:
AT&T asks customers to ‘remain vigilant’ about data after breach
AT&T also encouraged “customers to remain vigilant by monitoring their account activity and credit reports” and included links to credit bureaus in notes to customers.
Technology news sites CNET and TechCrunch reported that the data came from a 2021 breach, which AT&T denied at the time. Part of that dataset was published online at the time. And earlier this week, sites reported that datasets from that breach resurfaced, containing sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, home addresses, and names.
Cybersecurity software company MalwareBytes Labs noted a similar timeline and advised readers to be wary of scammers posing as AT&T. “If you receive an email, phone call, or anything similar from someone claiming to be from AT&T, please be cautious and contact AT&T directly to verify authenticity,” the company said.
AT&T added, “As of today, this incident has not had a material impact on AT&T’s operations.”
Follow Mike Snyder on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mike snyder.
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