AT&T acknowledges data breach affecting nearly all cell customers

Investigators found that a 2022 data breach leaked data from nearly all cellular customers, AT&T said Friday. Hackers illegally downloaded records of calls and texts from nearly all of the company’s cell customers between May 1, 2022, through Oct. 31, 2022. For a much smaller number of customers, the compromised data included records from Jan. 2, 2023, AT&T said. Leaked data includes customer phone numbers and numbers the customer contacted via phone call or text. Carriers like Cricket Wireless and Consumer Cellular that rent and use AT&T’s network infrastructure were also affected.

What information was not compromised? The stolen data does not include the content or timestamps of customer calls or texts, AT&T said. Customer names and other personally identifiable information like Social Security numbers and birth dates were not leaked, the company added. Hackers only have records of calls made and texts that were sent, the number of calls and texts sent, and how long a call lasted, according to AT&T.

So where is this data now? AT&T on Friday said it believed the hacked data was not publicly available currently and that authorities had apprehended at least one person allegedly involved in the incident. The company did not give other details about how the information could have been used. While the data excludes customer names, one could use publicly available online tools to identify names associated with a certain phone number, AT&T said.

How did this happen? Customer data was illegally downloaded from the company’s workspace on a third-party cloud storage system. AT&T did not explain how hackers gained access to the company’s workplace but said it secured the illegal access point.

Dig deeper: Read my report about the nationwide AT&T outage earlier this year.