AT&T Data Leak Puts Millions Of Social Security Numbers And Passcodes On Criminal-Infested ‘Dark Web’

Telecommunication giant AT&T has recently become the latest data breach victim, putting millions of its customers at risk. The breach, discovered on the “dark web,” has compromised both current and former account holders’ sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and passcodes.

According to AT&T’s announcement, on March 30 the dataset found on the dark web contains alarming figures: approximately 7.6 million current account holders and a staggering 65.4 million former account holders have had their data exposed. While the breach primarily involves Social Security numbers and passcodes, other personal details such as email and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates may also have been compromised.

After discovering the breach, AT&T reset millions of passcodes of current users and plans to communicate with affected account holders to address the situation. However, the origin of the leaked data remains unclear, with AT&T stating that it’s uncertain whether it originated from the company itself or one of its vendors.

“Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier,” the company said, as reported by NPR. “Currently, AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in theft of the data set.”

This isn’t the first time AT&T has faced such a security challenge. A similar data breach surfaced in 2021, but the company did not to acknowledge it publicly, according to said cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt.

“If they assess this and they made the wrong call on it, and we’ve had a course of years pass without them being able to notify impacted customers,” then it’s likely AT&T could face class action lawsuits, id Hunt told AP News.

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