AT&T is the next in a long series of technology companies to announce that its database of user information has been breached.
America's second largest mobile carrier said on Oct. 6 that it reached out to about 1,600 customers whose user data may have been stolen by a former AT&T employee. The employee has since been sacked by the company after the security breach was discovered. In a letter sent to customers and posted on the website of the Attorney General of Vermont, AT&T says the former employee may have gained unauthorized access to the drivers' licenses, Social Security numbers and Customer Proprietary Network Information of users, or the data relating to the users' phone calls, including date, time, duration and destination of each call.
"Unfortunately, we recently learned that one of our employees did not follow our strict privacy rules and inappropriately obtained some customer information," says Mark Siegel, AT&T spokesperson. "This individual no longer works at AT&T and we are directly contacting the limited number of affected customers."
AT&T director of finance billing operations Michael A. Chiaramonte also apologizes (pdf) to the customers on behalf of the company and says that AT&T is offering one year of free credit monitoring with CSID to all affected customers. He also says that, should customers find unauthorized charges on their accounts, they have already been or will be reversed.
"We have notified federal law concerning the unauthorized access of your CPNI as required by the Federal Communications Commission regulations," says Chiaramonte. "Our report to law enforcement does not contain specific information about your CPNI; only that the unauthorized access occurred."
AT&T encourages all affected customers to change the passcodes on their accounts or add one if they still don't have a passcode. The company also recommends that customers contact their credit card companies to place a fraud alert and educate themselves about identity theft programs that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers.
The news comes hot on the heels of several reports of massive security breaches, including the theft of private celebrity photos on Apple's iCloud and an attack involving JPMorgan Chase & Co. Large-scale retail stores, including Target and Home Depot, were also the target of cyber attacks, with as many as tens of millions of customers having had their user information compromised.
