AT&T Corp. disclosed right this moment {that a} new information breach has uncovered cellphone name and textual content message information for roughly 110 million folks — practically all of its clients. AT&T stated it delayed disclosing the incident in response to “nationwide safety and public security issues,” noting that a number of the information included information that might be used to find out the place a name was made or textual content message despatched. AT&T additionally acknowledged the client information have been uncovered in a cloud database that was protected solely by a username and password (no multi-factor authentication wanted).
In a regulatory submitting with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee right this moment, AT&T stated cyber intruders accessed an AT&T workspace on a third-party cloud platform in April, downloading recordsdata containing buyer name and textual content interactions between Could 1 and October 31, 2022, in addition to on January 2, 2023.
The corporate stated the stolen information contains information of calls and texts for cellular suppliers that resell AT&T’s service, however that it doesn’t embody the content material of calls or texts, Social Safety numbers, dates of start, or another personally identifiable data.
Nevertheless, the corporate stated a subset of stolen information included details about the placement of mobile communications towers closest to the subscriber, information that might be used to find out the approximate location of the client gadget initiating or receiving these textual content messages or cellphone calls.
“Whereas the info doesn’t embody buyer names, there are sometimes methods, utilizing publicly accessible on-line instruments, to search out the identify related to a particular phone quantity,” AT&T allowed.
AT&T’s stated it realized of the breach on April 19, however delayed disclosing it on the request of federal investigators. The corporate’s SEC disclosure says a minimum of one particular person has been detained by the authorities in reference to the breach.
In a written assertion shared with KrebsOnSecurity, the FBI confirmed that it requested AT&T to delay notifying affected clients.
“Shortly after figuring out a possible breach to buyer information and earlier than making its materiality determination, AT&T contacted the FBI to report the incident,” the FBI assertion reads. “In assessing the character of the breach, all events mentioned a possible delay to public reporting below Merchandise 1.05(c) of the SEC Rule, because of potential dangers to nationwide safety and/or public security. AT&T, FBI, and DOJ labored collaboratively by way of the primary and second delay course of, all whereas sharing key risk intelligence to bolster FBI investigative equities and to help AT&T’s incident response work.”
Techcrunch quoted an AT&T spokesperson saying the client information was stolen on account of a still-unfolding information breach involving greater than 160 clients of the cloud information supplier Snowflake.
Earlier this yr, malicious hackers found out that many main corporations have uploaded large quantities of helpful and delicate buyer information to Snowflake servers, all of the whereas defending these Snowflake accounts with little greater than a username and password.
Wired reported final month how the hackers behind the Snowflake information thefts bought stolen Snowflake credentials from darkish net providers that promote entry to usernames, passwords and authentication tokens which can be siphoned by information-stealing malware. For its half, Snowflake says it now requires all new clients to make use of multi-factor authentication.
Different corporations with hundreds of thousands of buyer information stolen from Snowflake servers embody Advance Auto Elements, Allstate, Anheuser-Busch, Los Angeles Unified, Mitsubishi, Neiman Marcus, Progressive, Pure Storage, Santander Financial institution, State Farm, and Ticketmaster.
Earlier this yr, AT&T reset passwords for hundreds of thousands of shoppers after the corporate lastly acknowledged a knowledge breach from 2018 involving roughly 7.6 million present AT&T account holders and roughly 65.4 million former account holders.
Mark Burnett is an utility safety architect, advisor and writer. Burnett stated the one actual use for the info stolen in the newest AT&T breach is to know who’s contacting whom and what number of instances.
“Essentially the most regarding factor to me about this AT&T breach of ALL buyer name and textual content information is that this isn’t considered one of their principal databases; it’s metadata on who’s contacting who,” Burnett wrote on Mastodon. “Which makes me marvel what would name logs with out timestamps or names have been used for.”
It stays unclear why so many main firms persist within the perception that it’s in some way acceptable to retailer a lot delicate buyer information with so few safety protections. For instance, Advance Auto Elements stated the info uncovered included full names, Social Safety numbers, drivers licenses and authorities issued ID numbers on 2.3 million individuals who have been former workers or job candidates.
That could be as a result of, other than the class-action lawsuits that invariably ensue after these breaches, there’s little holding corporations accountable for sloppy safety practices. AT&T instructed the SEC it doesn’t imagine this incident is more likely to materially influence AT&T’s monetary situation or outcomes of operations. AT&T reported revenues of greater than $30 billion in its most up-to-date quarter.