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AT&T’s disclosure Friday that a hacker downloaded call and text-message data from its subscribers raised questions about how its millions of customers would be affected, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The cellphone carrier says in a securities filing Friday that it became aware in April of someone claiming to have accessed customer data. AT&T says the stolen data was mostly from 2022 and encompassed nearly all of its nearly 90 million wireless customers.
While the hacked records didn’t include names, it did have phone numbers that could be linked to owners using public databases.
Here’s a rundown of what to know:
What did the hacker steal? 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.
When did AT&T know of the breach? AT&T says it learned on April 19 of this year that someone was claiming to have accessed customer data. The company reported the incident to officials shortly after learning about it and the Federal Bureau of Investigation says authorities held off on disclosing the hack to help bolster their investigation.
What should I do if I’m an AT&T customer? AT&T subscribers affected by the hack, including former customers, can request until December that the company send them the phone numbers illegally downloaded from their records. For more information, check AT&T’s website.
