AT&T says hackers stole personal data for nearly all customers for six months, including call and text records and other interactions.
If you’re an AT&T customer, you should know hackers were able to breach the carrier’s server and steal six months’ worth of personal data for nearly all AT&T wireless subscribers. The data includes call and text message records for six months, but not the actual contents of calls or messages. AT&T landline users also had some records stolen in this major breach.
This isn’t the kind of hack that puts you in danger of being the target of identity theft. The hackers did not obtain your personal details, such as full contact information, names, social security numbers, or bank accounts. But it’s still a massive security breach that can hurt users. Hackers might identify users with the help of their phone numbers, determine their connections to other people, and initiate social engineering attacks.
The hack
AT&T announced the data breach on Friday morning, explaining when the hack occurred and what data the attackers extracted:
Our investigation found that the downloaded data included phone call and text message records of nearly all of AT&T cellular customers from May 1, 2022, to October 31, 2022, as well as on January 2, 2023.
