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Hackers broke into a cloud platform used by AT&T and accessed the phone records of "nearly all" of its cellular customers, AT&T announced on Friday.

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AT&T said the stolen data contains phone numbers of both cellular and landline customers, as well as AT&T records of calls and text messages across a six-month period between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022.

AT&T said some of the stolen data includes more recent records from January 2, 2023 for a smaller, unspecified number of customers, as well as call records of customers with other cellular carriers that rely on AT&T's network.

Some of the records include cell site identification numbers linked to calls and texts, which can be used to work out the approximate location of where a call was made or message sent.

The downloaded data doesn't include the content of any calls or texts, or their time stamps, according to AT&T. It also doesn't have any details such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information.

AT&T said it learned of the data breach on April 19, and that it is unrelated to an earlier security incident in March. The company said it does not believe the data is publicly available at this time, and it continues to work with law enforcement to identify and apprehend those involved. At least one person is said to have been arrested.

AT&T told TechCrunch that the most recent compromise of customer records were stolen from the cloud data giant Snowflake during a recent spate of data thefts targeting Snowflake's customers. Other companies that have confirmed stolen data from Snowflake include Ticketmaster, QuoteWizard, and others.

Cybersecurity researchers from incident response firm Mandiant say the hacker group is mostly based in the US and those involved are financially motivated.

AT&T customers concerned about phishing and smishing scams should visit the company's support article, which also includes advice on how to protect yourself from online fraud.

Article Link: Hackers Steal Phone Records of 'Nearly All' AT&T Customers
 
This is why we should all be concerned about our data in the cloud. There is no security up there… especially if China is sending up “weather” balloons and collecting phone records as it traverses some clouds. They need to have fighter jets protecting all of these companies using the clouds.

I mean you don’t even need a weather balloon. If you’re up in the mountains you can reach them easily.

😜

But in all seriousness it’s concerning the number of data breaches happening. It’s practically impossible to not be affected by such breaches these days.
 
This is why I always have my credit reports frozen with all three companies and I put everything on my Amex gold card. Never use a debit card for anything, unless you absolutely have to. If there is ever an issue with fraud, and luckily I've only every dealt with petty fraud on my account once (knock on wood), Amex takes care of it instantly without any hassle.
 
So, am I correct in assuming that the contents of every text message is being stored by cellular companies for current and former customers, and that all of those will someday be stolen and become available for anyone to search? Similar to a story line in The Morning Show involving company emails
 
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What is AT&T’s problem? Are they using a bad cybersecurity company or are they just too cheap to pay for services that will keep our data safe?
 
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