About data security

In my company you have to also include a union stew.
That doesn't bother me greatly, because the junior person in my job title in the state has over 15 years on the job.

Unions have one beneficial side effect.
They raise labour costs to the point where you're SUPER careful about the people you hire, and this incentivises employers to pick new hires VERY carefully and get rid of the low performers VERY early.

 

Received notification from LifeLock by email that both my wife and my data is now on the dark web due to the AT&T data breech.
Notification from LifeLock says our Social Security Number - phone-email-etc now posted on the Dark Web. The notification does call out it is due to the AT&T data breech.

We haven't been AT&T customers since dumping them for poor Customer Service and skyrocketing service cost 10 years ago.

No matter if you aren't a Customer anymore, AT&T keeps their former Customer Data and leaked it to the Dark Web.

AT&T is truly a special company!

Still no acknowledgement from AT&T on how and when this happened - no notification from AT&T to former Customers that their data is compromised and on the dark web.

A notable increase this week on spam calls to our home phone and spam emails to my email account - thank you AT&T.

Changed our email passwords but of course changing our Social Security Number and Home Phone Number is off the table.

Maybe time for the Feds to pay AT&T another visit.

 

we still haven't heard anything from them.

 

Neither me too, and I have three accounts, but then a lot more of my information than just my driver's license info has been out there since 2015. Probably before that. You have to remember that the only reason that you know about the AT&T fumble is that they fessed up or got caught - depending on how you look at things.

We've seen all of this before.
2017 Equifax data breach - Wikipedia
All of my credit report info, along with those of 147 million of my closest friends were stolen as a result of this scrape.

Trivia Questions:
1. When did the Equifax breach occur?
b. WHO was responsible?
iii. WHEN did we find out about it?

(Extra Credit) How many company officers were charges with a crime?
It's important to remember that there will be a lot of scammers out there exploiting the scared and ignorant.
If you get a notification indicating that your data is on the 'dark web' what steps did you take to verify that this is so?

I'm no shill for Big Bell.
I see things from the inside AND from the outside.
If it were not for the low WAF I would be on Elon-Net tomorrow - despite the face that I get giga-whamalamadingdong fiber internet nearly free at home.
I think Big Bell acted rather promptly in this case because history has proven that bad news does not get better over time.
If I'm wrong they will be tried and convicted in the court of public opinion - JUST like Equifax.....Target, eBay, Yahoo, etc...
(WHAT'S in YOUR Wallet?)

 

These should answer for the question posed and much more information for any interested parties.

Equifax data breach FAQ: What happened, who was affected, what was the impact? | CSO Online

Equifax CEO Richard Smith steps down after major data breach - CNET

Two Equifax executives resign in wake of massive data breach | The Hill

Key Equifax executives departing after huge data breach | AP News

Equifax executive hit with insider trading charge for selling stock before data breach went public (nbcnews.com)

Chinese Hackers Charged in Equifax Breach — FBI

Equifax to Pay $575 Million as Part of Settlement with FTC, CFPB, and States Related to 2017 Data Breach | Federal Trade Commission

6 Fresh Horrors From Equifax CEO Richard Smith's Congressional Hearing | WIRED

Equifax CEO testifies to Congress. Richard Smith "deeply sorry" for data breach (cbsnews.com)

Lawmakers slam 'boneheaded' Equifax executives for failing to appear before Congress | Fox Business


How did it affect us? - the main action we took was to put a Credit Freeze on all of our Accounts and all our children's Accounts with all the Credit Bureaus. Some of the kids have taken the freezes off their accounts but we have opted to keep all our Accounts Credit Freezes active. There is about as much chance of us having a credit check done as there is for the sun to fall out of the sky.
My main complaint of the current AT&T breech is the roach like inhabitants of the dark web and clear web who now have a "refreshed" email addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers. Why is ATT&T storing the personal data and information of former customers who are not current customers?

 

Biggest Data Breaches in US History (Updated 2024) | UpGuard

Any of these fellas protecting your data?

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AT&T is in the news for the wrong reasons again

AT&T says hacker stole data on ‘nearly all’ of its wireless customers (msn.com)
"A hacker accessed and downloaded call and text-message data from nearly all AT&T Wireless customers, the company disclosed in a securities filing Friday.
The breach covers calls and texts made from May 1 to Oct. 31, 2022, as well as this past January. The stolen data include numbers customers called or texted and their duration, but doesn’t contain the content of those communications"

Nearly all AT&T cell customers’ call and text records exposed in a massive breach | CNN Business

Me thinks it is time for the FEDS to visit AT&T yet again.

 

They can have the numbers I call and text. I don’t have att cell service but a friend does. I got this call saying my bank of america account has been compromised. I don’t have a BA account. But she does and got the same call and went into a panic. So it appears to me hackers want the numbers to scam people.
The scammers can have my text content too, if they are that bored with their life. But I see that didn’t happen.

 

Stinking hackers! Some folks I work with have AT&T for their mobiles and are getting the notifications.

Does it bother anybody else that a government that's $34.8 Trillion in debt gives US credit scores?? That's like Bill Clinton giving advice on how to be a faithful husband!!

 

Is that where our credit scores come from?

 

we just dumped att for visible recently, but i suppose all our records were hacked.

 

After Equifax, other data breaches seem inconsequential.
We also locked our credit. We have temporarily unlocked it to open a new line of credit, that’s it.

If someone absolutely must run a deep credit check, we don’t do business with them.
We also let them know it is due to data breaches.

If enough economic pain occurs due to breaches, it will get fixed.

 

i fear att is going the way of the old gm...

 

We were in the same boat

We had dumped AT&T about 10 years ago but received a letter last year that our data had been comprised with the AT&T data breach that occurred 2 years ago.

Apparently they keep old customers private data - so hackers get that too.

AT&T is the gift that keeps giving.

Oddly enough we were customers of the old BellSouth and it was a great company with wonderful service- went straight to the dumps when AT&T was able to incorporate all the older smaller regional phone companies.

Data of nearly all AT&T customers downloaded to a third-party platform in security breach (msn.com)

 

I don’t see where account data was taken in your post, and that’s what I based my reply before on. It says phone numbers, and how long the texts or calls took.

 

i think the point is that att is extremely vulnerable to attacks, and seems to take a lackadaisical attitude toward them.
after having been a customer of both their landlines and cell for many many years, i can see nothing but the bottom for them.

 

I don’t know if all that is correct. I had them and hated them as much as anyone, based on phone reps. This is from a wall street journal that popped up. It doesn’t seem like they don’t care or are more vulnerable than anyone else, maybe less than a smaller company.



“The cellphone carrier said in a securities filing Friday that it became aware in April of someone claiming to have accessed customer data. AT&T said the stolen data was mostly from 2022 and encompassed nearly all of its wireless customers. The company has nearly 90 million cellphone subscribers.

While the hacked records didn’t include names, it did have phone numbers that could be linked to owners using public databases. Some customers have raised concerns the information could be used to expose business deals, secret meetings or romantic affairs.

Here is what AT&T customers should know about the hack:

What did the hacker steal?

The hacker stole AT&T records accessed through an outside company’s cloud platform. The data didn’t include the content of calls or texts, nor did it have personal information like birth dates and Social Security numbers.

The stolen data showed the telephone numbers a customer contacted between approximately May and October 2022 and on Jan. 2, 2023, according to AT&T. The records also showed how many times those numbers were contacted and the total duration of calls over time. A subset of the data included details about cellular sites that could be used to determine users’ locations.

AT&T said it doesn’t believe the data was leaked to the public.

Who is the hacker?

AT&T hasn’t said who the hacker was or how many people may have been involved. The cellphone carrier said at least one person connected to the hack was apprehended and it was working with law enforcement to arrest those involved.

When did AT&T know of the breach?

AT&T said it learned on April 19 of this year that someone was claiming to have accessed customer data. The cellphone carrier said it investigated the claim and believes the stolen data was accessed between April 14 and 25.

A Justice Department spokesman said the company reported the incident shortly after learning about it. Authorities held off on disclosing the hack to help bolster their investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

How do I know if I’ve been affected?

AT&T said the hack covered nearly all of its wireless customers. A customer was likely affected if he or she was a subscriber between May and October 2022, the dates on the stolen records. The records also include information about landline customers.

The database would have also included some customers of mobile brands that use AT&T’s network, including Cricket Wireless, Consumer Cellular and Tracfone.”

 

maybe i just feel their worse because i was an unfortunate customer, and my stock lost 50% of its value

 

After Equifax, other data breaches seem inconsequential....
^ that.

Corporations may be 'people,' but until you start seeing people being cuffed and stuffed companies will not be motivated to do the right thing.

The data involved are billing related - if we're being accurately informed.
Call and text numbers, times, and duration.
These are metadata only - or 'data about data.' - again.....IF we are accurately informed.

There's a difference between a data HACK (somebody scraping the data) and a procedural or what I like to call an HRC error - somebody thinking that laws do not apply to them.
Unfortunately, one can lead to the other, like a person on drugs dropping their computer off to be serviced while they are high as a kite and forgetting to pick it back up - resulting in data being released.

Either is possible, but the information that I am being provided with suggests that it an HRC error.
UNLIKE landlines, People have a right to be somewhat interested in the security of switch data.
Mobile Telephone Switch(ing) Offices (MTSOs) keep track of lots of groovy stuff because as you move through the network they have to hand your call off from cell to cell.
That's why almost anything with an IMEI number also has a GPS (GNSS) receiver.

Like....your CAR for example.....