Case Info
AT&T Announces Data Breach Affecting Millions of Customers
On March 30, 2024, AT&T acknowledged a data breach affecting over 7 million current and 65 million former customers. AT&T had previously denied the company had been subject to a data breach even though customer account information had been surfacing on the dark web and elsewhere since 2021. They acknowledgment only came after independent security experts evaluated data found on the internet, much of which was not only on the dark web, but also available on a public forum accessible by any internet users.
Previously, in 2023, the company had acknowledged information of 9 million customers had been exposed through a third-party vendor and in 2014, the company had settled an FCC investigation for $25 million after the exposure of about 280,000 customers’ data.
In March 2024, after acknowledging the breach, AT&T reset all current users’ accounts and required that customers set up new credentials.
Data stolen may have included:
- Names
- Social security numbers
- Dates of birth
- Addresses
- Account and phone numbers
- Account passwords
- Email addresses
Stolen AT&T Data Published on Internet
Stolen data from AT&T customers was not just on the “dark web” which requires specially designed web browsers to access and navigate, it was posted on a publicly available hackers forum.
Until March 2024, AT&T continued to deny the information had come from its system until an outside researcher analyzed available data and discovered AT&T passcodes within the data. AT&T did not acknowledge the breach until March, stating that the data set appeared to be from 2019 or earlier but still affected 7.6 million current users and 65.4 former customers.
Plaintiffs File Lawsuits Against AT&T
Following the AT&T acknowledgement of data breach, current and former customers have filed lawsuits against the communications giant. Lawsuits have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas before District Court Judge Ada Brown.
Seeger Weiss partner, Shauna Itri was appointed to the Plaintiff’s Executive in the AT&T Inc Customer Data Security Breach Litigation. Litigation is ongoing.