AT&T Corp. disclosed at the moment {that a} new knowledge breach has uncovered cellphone name and textual content message data for roughly 110 million individuals — practically all of its prospects. AT&T stated it delayed disclosing the incident in response to “nationwide safety and public security issues,” noting that a number of the data included knowledge that could possibly be used to find out the place a name was made or textual content message despatched. AT&T additionally acknowledged the client data had been uncovered in a cloud database that was protected solely by a username and password (no multi-factor authentication wanted).
In a regulatory submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee at the moment, AT&T stated cyber intruders accessed an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform in April, downloading information containing buyer name and textual content interactions between Could 1 and October 31, 2022, in addition to on January 2, 2023.
The corporate stated the stolen knowledge consists of data of calls and texts for cellular suppliers that resell AT&T’s service, however that it doesn’t embody the content material of calls or texts, Social Safety numbers, dates of beginning, or another personally identifiable info.
Nevertheless, the corporate stated a subset of stolen data included details about the situation of mobile communications towers closest to the subscriber, knowledge that could possibly be used to find out the approximate location of the client machine initiating or receiving these textual content messages or cellphone calls.
“Whereas the info doesn’t embody buyer names, there are sometimes methods, utilizing publicly obtainable on-line instruments, to search out the identify related to a selected phone quantity,” AT&T allowed.
AT&T’s stated it realized of the breach on April 19, however delayed disclosing it on the request of federal investigators. The corporate’s SEC disclosure says a minimum of one particular person has been detained by the authorities in reference to the breach.
In a written assertion shared with KrebsOnSecurity, the FBI confirmed that it requested AT&T to delay notifying affected prospects.
“Shortly after figuring out a possible breach to buyer knowledge and earlier than making its materiality choice, AT&T contacted the FBI to report the incident,” the FBI assertion reads. “In assessing the character of the breach, all events mentioned a possible delay to public reporting below Merchandise 1.05(c) of the SEC Rule, on account of potential dangers to nationwide safety and/or public security. AT&T, FBI, and DOJ labored collaboratively by way of the primary and second delay course of, all whereas sharing key risk intelligence to bolster FBI investigative equities and to help AT&T’s incident response work.”
Techcrunch quoted an AT&T spokesperson saying the client knowledge was stolen because of a still-unfolding knowledge breach involving greater than 160 prospects of the cloud knowledge supplier Snowflake.
Earlier this 12 months, malicious hackers found out that many main firms have uploaded huge quantities of priceless and delicate buyer knowledge to Snowflake servers, all of the whereas defending these Snowflake accounts with little greater than a username and password.
Wired reported final month how the hackers behind the Snowflake knowledge thefts bought stolen Snowflake credentials from darkish net companies that promote entry to usernames, passwords and authentication tokens which are siphoned by information-stealing malware. For its half, Snowflake says it now requires all new prospects to make use of multi-factor authentication.
Different firms with thousands and thousands of buyer data stolen from Snowflake servers embody Advance Auto Components, Allstate, Anheuser-Busch, Los Angeles Unified, Mitsubishi, Neiman Marcus, Progressive, Pure Storage, Santander Financial institution, State Farm, and Ticketmaster.
Earlier this 12 months, AT&T reset passwords for thousands and thousands of shoppers after the corporate lastly acknowledged an information breach from 2018 involving roughly 7.6 million present AT&T account holders and roughly 65.4 million former account holders.
Mark Burnett is an software safety architect, advisor and creator. Burnett stated the one actual use for the info stolen in the newest AT&T breach is to know who’s contacting whom and what number of instances.
“Essentially the most regarding factor to me about this AT&T breach of ALL buyer name and textual content data is that this isn’t one among their major databases; it’s metadata on who’s contacting who,” Burnett wrote on Mastodon. “Which makes me surprise what would name logs with out timestamps or names have been used for.”
It stays unclear why so many main companies persist within the perception that it’s one way or the other acceptable to retailer a lot delicate buyer knowledge with so few safety protections. For instance, Advance Auto Components stated the info uncovered included full names, Social Safety numbers, drivers licenses and authorities issued ID numbers on 2.3 million individuals who had been former workers or job candidates.
That could be as a result of, aside from the class-action lawsuits that invariably ensue after these breaches, there’s little holding firms accountable for sloppy safety practices. AT&T advised the SEC it doesn’t consider this incident is prone to materially affect AT&T’s monetary situation or outcomes of operations. AT&T reported revenues of greater than $30 billion in its most up-to-date quarter.
