On Saturday, AT&T announced that it would investigate a data breach that involved the personal information of more than 70 million current and former customers leaked on the dark web.
The company shared information about the breach, noting that 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders have been impacted.
In a press release, AT&T shared that the breach occurred about two weeks ago, adding that it has not yet impacted the company’s operations.
When it comes to what was accessed in the breach, AT&T said it varied from person to person, with affected information including social security numbers, full names, emails, mailing addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, AT&T account numbers, and passcodes.
So far, the source of the leak has not been identified publicly.
“Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier,” the company said. “Currently, AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in theft of the data set.”
As for what AT&T is planning on doing to rectify the situation, the company said it would soon be “reaching out to all 7.6 million impacted customers and have reset their passcodes.”
It also has plans to reach out to both current and former holders who had their sensitive personal information compromised through the breach.
AT&T says it is planning to offer “complimentary identity theft and credit monitoring services.”
Customers are being encouraged to closely monitor their account activity and credit reports, but the company is enlisting external cybersecurity experts to help investigate and find those affected.
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