AT&T denies that the leaked data of 70 million people came from its systems
A hacker is selling a massive archive on the dark web, claiming it comes from a 2021 data breach at US telecommunications giant AT&T. However, the company denies that the data comes from its servers.
BleepingComputer reported that a threat actor going by the alias ShinyHunters placed an ad on the RaidForums for the sale of sensitive data from 71 million AT&T customers.
The database contains people’s names, addresses, cell phone numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information. The publication analyzed a sample of the data and confirmed its authenticity. It is currently impossible to determine whether the entire database is legitimate.
History of violations
The starting price of ShinyHunters is $200,000, with increasing bids of $30,000. They would immediately sell the database for an offer of $1 million, it was said.
However, when contacted by the publication, AT&T said the data did not belong to them: “Based on our investigation today, the information that appeared in an Internet chat room does not appear to have originated from our systems,” AT&T shared. BleepingComputer in 2021. ShinyHunters, on the other hand, responded that they “don’t care if they don’t admit it.”
AT&T has a history of malware and data breaches. About a year ago, the company alerted millions of users that some of their sensitive data had become public during a supply chain cyberattack. Apparently a marketing vendor was hacked a few months earlier, resulting in the theft of AT&T’s data.
Nine million of its customers were affected in that incident, with hackers stealing proprietary customer network information from some wireless accounts. This includes the number of lines in an account or wireless rate plan.
Even earlier, in July 2020, news emerged that some AT&T employees had taken bribes to install malware on their network. Two individuals, later revealed to be Muhammad Fahd and Ghulam Jiwani, were accused of paying more than $1 million in bribes to several AT&T employees at the telecom company’s Mobility Customer Care call center in Washington.