AT&T data breach affected nearly all customers after info downloaded to 3rd-party platform | CBC News

The data of nearly all customers of the U.S. telecommunications big AT&T was downloaded to a third-party platform in a safety breach, the corporate mentioned Friday, as cyberattacks in opposition to companies, faculties and well being programs proceed to unfold globally. 

The breach, most of which came about over 5 months in 2022, hit customers of AT&T’s mobile customers, customers of cellular digital community operators utilizing AT&T’s wi-fi community, in addition to its landline customers who interacted with these mobile numbers. 

Approximately 109 million buyer accounts have been impacted, in accordance to AT&T, which mentioned that it at present would not consider that the data is publicly accessible.

“The data does not contain the content of calls or texts, personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information,” AT&T mentioned Friday.

The compromised data additionally would not embrace some data usually seen in utilization particulars, such because the time-stamps of calls or texts, the corporate mentioned, or buyer names. AT&T, nevertheless, mentioned that there are sometimes methods utilizing publicly accessible on-line instruments to discover the title related to a selected phone quantity.

Cyber-security consultants concurred, saying that such data can be utilized to hint customers. 

“While the information that was exposed doesn’t directly have sensitive information, it can be used to piece together events and who may be calling who. This could impact people’s private lives, as private calls and connections could be exposed,” Thomas Richards, principal guide at Synopsys’s software program integrity group, mentioned in an emailed assertion.

“The business phone numbers will be easy to identify and private numbers can be matched to names with public record searches.” 

Third-party platform recognized as Snowflake

An inside investigation decided that compromised data consists of AT&T information of calls and texts between May 1, 2022 and Oct. 31, 2022.

AT&T recognized the third-party platform as Snowflake and mentioned that the incident was restricted to an AT&T workspace on that cloud firm’s platform and didn’t impression its community.

Cyber-security consultants say the sheer quantity of data held be corporations on cloud platforms can create its personal perils. 

“The AT&T data breach underscores the growing risks associated with the vast amounts of data companies now store on cloud and SaaS platforms,” mentioned Roei Sherman, subject chief know-how officer at Mitiga, a threat-detection and -investigation firm that focuses on cloud know-how.

“As organizations increasingly rely on these technologies, the complexity of detecting and investigating breaches has risen sharply.”

AT&T’s investigation is ongoing and it has engaged with cyber-security consultants to perceive the character and scope of the felony breach. At least one particular person has been apprehended thus far, in accordance to the corporate. 

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation mentioned that it has labored collaboratively with AT&T and the Justice Department “through the first and second delay process, all while sharing key threat intelligence to bolster FBI investigative equities and to assist AT&T’s incident response work.”

The Department of Justice mentioned Friday that it turned conscious of the breach early this 12 months, however that it met the safety customary for a delayed submitting by AT&T with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, a submitting that was made public Friday. 

The DOJ mentioned an earlier disclosure of the breach would “pose a substantial risk to national security and public safety.”