Hackers Steal Phone Records of 'Nearly All' AT&T Customers

[0423MAC]

Careful not to spend all $3 at once you AT&T customers will receive in 2-3 years.

 

[JustSomeInfo]

I used to get this book delivered to me. It contained everyone around me's name, address and phone number. And it didn't cost a cent to get that info.

 

[Col4bin]

Way to often companies pick the wrong contractors and not enough vetting is completed

Big companies like AT&T choose partner providers based on how much $$$ it can save them. As they say, you get what you pay for.

 

[dandeco]

"...includes advice on how to protect yourself from online fraud."

Stop using the internet and use this instead...🙃

View attachment 2396515

My private toon detective fursona Sam Valentino prefers to use such a phone in his office, being such a classic film noir-esque gumshoe, even though he does have a Smartphone for when he's on a case (handy for snapping photos for evidence, too!)

(It's actually just a decorative prop I use for photoshoots and the like.)

 

[JitteryJimmy]

Did you read the article?

A bold assumption.

Absolutely.

People are completely missing the fact that this AT&T data was fully scrubbed of legally protected personal information. It is just phone number interactions, rough day (not time) data, and sometimes very rough cell location data. I'm surprised that AT&T is legally obligated to reveal this leak, which is probably why it took AT&T's legal team 3 months to figure out that this requires customer notification.

AT&T has plenty of its own data centers and services for its own operations, being one of the most powerful communications companies in the world. It is most likely that this data was stored on a 3rd party cloud service only because it was being shared with a data broker.

 

[Cirillo Gherardo]

OH NO now someone might know that I called my wife and my mother between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022.

Get a grip people. The hyperbole and faux outrage is ridiculous.

 

[Col4bin]

Time for these companies to have to payout to their customers. Giving the .gov $50 billion in fines and give me some "free" credit monitoring service is crap

Problem is, these companies are all in the back pockets of lobbyists on both sides of the aisle to look the other way on these types of concerns.

 

[JitteryJimmy]

Okay... can someone maybe explain this to me? I get these data breaches happen, too frequently, but how/why is it allowable, and/or acceptable, to take almost 2 years to tell your customers that's happened? And, I guess the previous statement is the lesser of two evils, because if it takes them nearly 2 years to figure out they were hacked, it makes sense why these data breaches occur so frequently.

This question is best directed to your congressional representative.

 

[Col4bin]

Absolutely.

People are completely missing the fact that this AT&T data was fully scrubbed of legally protected personal information. It is just phone number interactions, rough day (not time) data, and sometimes very rough cell location data. I'm surprised that AT&T is legally obligated to reveal this leak, which is probably why it took AT&T's legal team 3 months to figure out that this requires customer notification.

AT&T has plenty of its own data centers and services for its own operations, being one of the most powerful communications companies in the world. It is most likely that this data was stored on a 3rd party cloud service only because it was being shared with a data broker.

If this were the case, why would a hacker even bother in the first place? Is there more to this story than what has been acknowledged publicly so far?

 

[slippery-pete]

I don't care what data was compromised. It doesn't matter. My data was compromised so they need to pay dearly and struggle for their very survival.

Got it.

Good. Let it put them out of business and let it be the lesson for any other company who treat customer fraud like this as a walk in the park. The way to make businesses bet their existence on their infrastructure is to take down a company like ATT to prove it's not a joke. Right now it's treated as a joke.

Your posts have to be a joke/trolling...right?

 

[JitteryJimmy]

So, you think they'll just pay it out of their bank account, and wont pass the cost of that fine down to its customers?

Everyone gets excited about big fines, without realizing that we the customers ultimately pay them.

Yes, thanks to capitalism:

They still need to compete in the telecom market. If they pass these expensive errors onto their customers, they'll leave, and another competitor will succeed.

So no, they won't pass on these costs. They will become more secure and more efficient.

 

[slippery-pete]

If this were the case, why would a hacker even bother in the first place? Is there more to this story than what has been acknowledged publicly so far?

Because maybe they through there was more/different data than what they actually obtained?

 

[JitteryJimmy]

If this were the case, why would a hacker even bother in the first place? Is there more to this story than what has been acknowledged publicly so far?

Because data brokers and hackers will happily take free, unsecured data instead of paying millions for a subscription to a data source.

 

[slippery-pete]

Banks never have breaches like this. I wonder why?!?! 🤪

or mortgage companies...whoops, forgot about Mr. Cooper

 

[blcamp]

Asset Theft & Turmoil.

 

[gaximus]

bad but i could care less about old metadata like this

I read this as the actual text messages.

 

[webkit]

With your telephone number your name can be found. With your name found your address can be found, with your address found lot's of other information about you can be found.

Telephone number, name, address....these are precisely what phone companies used to publish and distribute every year in the form of a phone book. This information is still available today through online phone/address directories. There are several easier ways to connect someone to an address besides a stolen phone number.

 

[webkit]

If this were the case, why would a hacker even bother in the first place? Is there more to this story than what has been acknowledged publicly so far?

Having a list of actively used phone/text numbers can be very valuable to scammers and spammers.

 

[slippery-pete]

Telephone number, name, address....these are precisely what phone companies used to publish and distribute every year in the form of a phone book. This information is still available today through online phone/address directories. There are several easier ways to connect someone to an address besides a stolen phone number.

This, exactly this.

 

[TTTedP]

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.

😜

damn, that's a good one! Any bets 5 years from now there will be people on the web believing stuff like this is true.

 

[Fuzzball84]

damn, that's a good one! Any bets 5 years from now there will be people on the web believing stuff like this is true.

Yeah, I mean it is true. If you look up these days there’s way more clouds. Because everyone keeps storing things up there. The issue I have is that what goes up eventually comes down… and some people have their entire phones backed up there. I just hope their backups don’t hit me on the head one day. I have enough of a time avoiding bird poo.

 

[lindros2]

This question is best directed to your congressional representative.

My congressman or Senator, who have illegally gained votes through falsified USPS posturing?
Yeah, that will go nowhere.

(oh, and a bonus - they asked for my social security number - in the clear on a form - to "help" me with AT&T or USPS):

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

With your telephone number your name can be found. With your name found your address can be found, with your address found lot's of other information about you can be found. Do not have a closed mind when it comes to data breaches because that is what criminals are hoping for.

What do you keep going on about for crying out loud? That's the point! The info is already out there anyways unless you live off the grid under a rock. Go to one of those background/find-anyone websites. It's all already there. Yesterday I googled someone's name and one of those background check sites showed me their address and family, etc. IT'S ALREADY OUT THERE!

You keep trying to make something out of nothing here. If someone wants to research YOU, they will find your info with or without a data breach.

 

[tivoboy]

Bad news for Ashley Madison subscribers…and BAD news for Snowflake.. but for AT&T customer - not so much.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I don't care what data was compromised. It doesn't matter. My data was compromised so they need to pay dearly and struggle for their very survival.

When you have experienced loss or damage from said compromise, go get a lawyer. Until then, no harm, no money.