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I cut up my debit card years ago. Everything goes on one credit card. Good advice.

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.
Yes! Credit freeze, and temporary thaw, is so easy to do now, no reason to not do that by default. My debit card is in a drawer. I would question one credit card, though, your credit utilization can be higher, not good for credit score? It’s pretty easy to track usage and possible fraud on 2-3 cards.
 
ATT should be fined $50 billion for this fraud
Do you really think those fines come from company's pockets or the management pockets? No. Those fines come from customers by the company raising rates. That large of a fine against AT&T would put them out of business or double the amount charge to customers.

The real action should be against management who should be fined or put in jail. At least fired from the job with no golden parachute regardless of what their employment contract states. If there is a termination bonus that money should be voided and returned to the company or seized by the government. Holding people personally responsible is the best course of action.
 
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It is about time authorities hit companies hard who have been hacked because there is no excuse for it. There is so much information out there from ex-hackers that explain how hacks are done and yet businesses still get hacked and why? because they fail to secure their IT systems properly or they fail to train their employee's properly on safe guarding techniques/methods.

AT&T are responsible for safe guarding their customers data and they have failed to do that by using a 3rd party company who does not have adequate hack safe guards in place. AT&T should be fined millions of $$$ for this data breach.
 
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I'm wondering how long until there's a notice about a class action lawsuit against AT&T. Stuff like this can fly by regulators (like this did until they got found out). People won't stand for it, and if there's enough people that want to fight, there's always plenty of lawyers ready to take on the challenge.

"Records of Calls and Texts" is a pretty vague term! Does that mean they potentially have call records of someone talking to their bank and confirming all of their bank information? Does that mean they'd have information on someone's call to a hotel where they provided all of their Credit Card information?

Inferring that just because there's no Social Security Number information or specific account information isn't telling the whole story here. If they have access to call records and text records (And potentially Location Information!), people send a lot of stuff thru texts! And calls?? Whoa boy.
Did you read the article? Either way, read it again. It literally says that no text message or call content was involved. There wasn't any time stamp info or location info (except there was cell site ID if that is somehow usable).

It's my understanding iMessage is encrypted end-to-end so no one has the content of the messages except for the sender and receiver.
 
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OMG… 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… So basically they can look the record of what calls and texts I made over six months but not my name, email, content of the call or text. Usage data but not content. I’m not going to stay awake at night over it.
 
I would question one credit card, though, your credit utilization can be higher, not good for credit score?
I have one card that I use almost exclusively. I pay the balance off weekly so my utilization is not that high. My credit score is so high that even high utilization will not drop my score much.
 
I'm wondering how long until there's a notice about a class action lawsuit against AT&T.
Only the lawyers benefit from class action. Any law firm would get millions. The customers would be lucky to get $1.00. My last settlement from some class action was $0.12 on a virtual credit card. Such being difficult to use. The law firm got $28 million.
 
It is about time authorities hit companies hard who have been hacked because there is no excuse for it. There is so much information out there from ex-hackers that explain how hacks are done and yet businesses still get hacked and why? because they fail to secure their IT systems properly or they fail to train their employee's properly on safe guarding techniques/methods.

AT&T are responsible for safe guarding their customers data and they have failed to do that by using a 3rd party company who does not have adequate hack safe guards in place. AT&T should be fined millions of $$$ for this data breach.
And the ones who make out are the lawyers. What damage has been caused? If ATT is honest, the data that was stolen sounds pretty harmless.
 
E2E encryption is the answer.



like what?
You can use meta data to generate activity profiles of people which can then in turn be used to try to access accounts etc

It can also be used to expose vulnerabilities in the target companies other systems

Meta data is so valuable… why do you think they stole it if it was worthless
 
I wish Apple would launch an MVNO. I would feel more comfortable with them.

Although it seems nothing too sensitive was hacked here, this could've been a lot worse.

Edit: Apparently the data stolen includes customers of MVNOs. So I guess forget about that idea.
I’d still trust an MVNO run by Apple more than anyone else. Just make sure it’s using the most reliable network with the best coverage of the U.S. - including rural areas. Offer it as a part of Apple One.
 
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That’s crazy!! Just curious, what kind if sinister extortion plot kinda stuff can hackers do with such a massive hoard of data?
Well, the article states that no content was stolen, just call logs. The only thing the hackers have are phone numbers, times, and dates. The article mentions that phone numbers can be traced to individuals but I have a tough time thinking about how your phone number could impact you.
 
I’d still trust an MVNO run by Apple more than anyone else. Just make sure it’s using the most reliable network with the best coverage of the U.S. - including rural areas. Offer it as a part of Apple One.
They could even go the US Mobile route and offer a sim for T-Mobile customers and offer one for Verizon customers.
 
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AT&T are responsible for safe guarding their customers data
Are call records really the customer's data? That is all that was stolen. There is no voice data, text data, or other identifying information. All the thieves may know is that phone number xxx was at these approximate locations on these times. Big deal. Yes, they got phone numbers. Will that stop spam calls? Nope. I get text and phone calls from political organizations several times a day. My phone number is hardly private anymore.
 
It also doesn't have any details such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information…
That's already been stolen on other occasions from other companies. I have had years of free credit alerts from all the breaches.
 
The real issue is that thieves and hackers were able to access any information at all. What was stolen is not particularly valuable except for perhaps the phone numbers. With robot dialers just dialing blocks of numbers, eventually a number will be exposed.

It is more troubling that AT&T's systems were compromised. What else has been stolen of which AT&T is not aware or has not publicly reported? This intrusion is an indication of a lack of security on the part of AT&T. Are their others systems also vulnerable to attack? That is the real issue.
 
It is about time authorities hit companies hard who have been hacked because there is no excuse for it. There is so much information out there from ex-hackers that explain how hacks are done and yet businesses still get hacked and why? because they fail to secure their IT systems properly or they fail to train their employee's properly on safe guarding techniques/methods.

AT&T are responsible for safe guarding their customers data and they have failed to do that by using a 3rd party company who does not have adequate hack safe guards in place. AT&T should be fined millions of $$$ for this data breach.
Did you read the article? See what data was breeched????
 
Yes! Credit freeze, and temporary thaw, is so easy to do now, no reason to not do that by default. My debit card is in a drawer. I would question one credit card, though, your credit utilization can be higher, not good for credit score? It’s pretty easy to track usage and possible fraud on 2-3 cards.
Right, I have two open accounts total, my Amex gold (charge card) and my Costco Visa (credit card), which I only use for fuel purchases at Costco since the rewards pay for my membership and then some each year. I also use my Costco card whenever I go to a place that doesn't take Amex, which has only happened a handful of times over the past 15 years.
 
The reason these breaches keep happening is because there are no meaningful consequences. Companies don’t want to spend the money for truly solid security. But you would see these companies tripping all over themselves to change their business models if it suddenly became more expensive to deal with the fallout of hacks than to pay for proper prevention.
 
And the ones who make out are the lawyers. What damage has been caused? If ATT is honest, the data that was stolen sounds pretty harmless.
Did you miss the part in the article where it says that both mobile phone numbers and land line numbers were part of the hack. So that means nearly every AT&T customer has now had both their mobile phone number and their landline number compromised and in the hands of criminals (yes these hackers are criminals). A person's mobile/landline number can be used as part of identity theft, phishing scams and mass advertising.

So, are you still of the opinion that the data stolen was harmless?
 
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