Hackers Stole Call and Text Records on Nearly All AT&T Customers Affecting Tens of Millions of People for Months: Data includes the number called and how often the calling to a certain number but personal information is not included. AT&T apprehended a suspect in the hacking and enhanced the cybersecurity to prevent such incidents in the future.

AT&T recently revealed that hackers stole nearly all of its customers’ call and text message records. This enormous data breach has affected tens of millions of people, covering a six-month period in 2022 and one day in January 2023. The company has confirmed that a suspect has been apprehended in connection with this hack.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T disclosed that the stolen data includes records of which telephone numbers customers texted or called and how often such interactions occurred. On the bright side, the data does not include the substantive content of the messages or calls, nor personal information like social security numbers, birthdates, or other identifying information.

“The stolen data do not include the content of calls or texts, personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information,” AT&T said in the SEC filing.

Last year, AT&T announced that it had more than 127 million devices connected to its network. It is unclear how many of those were affected by the breach from the SEC filing, but the Federal Communications Commission said it would investigate the hack. Given these developments, AT&T is working on a better cybersecurity infrastructure to ensure that this does not happen again.

“AT&T has implemented additional cybersecurity measures in response to this incident, including closing the point of unlawful access,” the company said in its filing. “AT&T will provide notice to its current and former impacted customers.”

However, the data was not paired with names that would correspond to the phone numbers, although that can still be deduced through online data brokers or public records. AT&T customers weren’t the only ones affected by the hack; it also hit customers using other providers that rely on AT&T’s wireless network — including mobile virtual network operators.

The filing indicated that although AT&T had detected the hack on 19 April, the company since then had been working diligently with law enforcement to trace and apprehend the culprits. This is the second big hack disclosed by AT&T within some months, the first one having been in March and having exposed personal information, including social security numbers, for millions of users.

Major companies across several industries have become victims of cyber-attacks this year. Many of these hacks are followed up with exploits from hackers either holding the data for ransom or giving it out for free on the internet. Ticketmaster was hacked in May and the hack affected about 560 million individuals. Hackers leaked ticketing information online, demanding millions of dollars in ransom.

In other words, AT&T is now dealing with a massive exposure of nearly all customers’ call and text records. Although there weren’t sensitive data in the looted information, the number of individuals affected by this breach is definitely very huge. AT&T has been improving their cybersecurity in order to avoid any similar breaches in the future. The company likewise assured that it will inform the customers whose data was breached. This incident uses cyber-attack means to underline the ever-growing threat to major corporations and the need for robust cybersecurity measures.

Cybersecurity professionals emphasize that, in order to avoid such breaches of information, vigilance and constant innovation in the security system are the necessities. As companies like AT&T plug their loopholes, it is equally important for customers to be well-informed on taking adequate measures to protect their personal data. It is through this joint effort—between companies and law enforcers—that the warfare against cybercrimes, which appears to increase with each day by day, would be quite well-fought in ensuring the digital information remains safe and full of security.