Anne Czichos
AT&T (NYSE:T) suffered a hack of customer data which included records of calls and texts of its users for a six-month period in 2022.
AT&T’s stock was down about 2% premarket on Friday.
The Dallas-based telecom giant said in an SEC filing that on April 19 the company learned that a “threat actor” claimed to have unlawfully accessed and copied AT&T call logs.
Following a probe by AT&T, it believes that hacker accessed an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform and, between April 14 and April 25, 2024, exfiltrated files containing AT&T records of customer call and text interactions which happened between approximately May 1 and Oct. 31, 2022, as well as on Jan. 2, 2023.
The third-party cloud platform was identified as that of Snowflake (SNOW), according to a report from Bloomberg News.
Snowflake’s stock fell about 5% premarket on Friday.
AT&T noted that 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.
However, the data includes, records of calls and texts of nearly all of AT&T’s wireless customers and customers of mobile virtual network operators, or MVNO, using the company’s wireless network, for that period.
The company added that these records identify the telephone numbers with which an AT&T or MVNO wireless number interacted during these periods, including telephone numbers of AT&T wireline customers and customers of other carriers, counts of those interactions, and total call duration for a day or month.
AT&T noted that while the data does not include customer names, there are often ways, using publicly available online tools, to find the name related with a specific telephone number.
The company said that on May 9, and June 5, the U.S. Department of Justice determined that a delay in providing public disclosure was warranted. AT&T was now timely filing this report.
The AT&T said it is working with law enforcement to help with the arrest of those involved in the incident and that at least one person has been apprehended.
As of this July 12 filing, AT&T does not believe that the data was publicly available.
The company noted that the incident has not had a material impact on its operations, and it does not believe that this incident is likely to materially impact its financial condition or results of operations.