Frontier Communications, one of America's leading telecommunications providers, has disclosed it suffered a cyberattack by a cybercrime group.
The telecom company believes the group gained access to sensitive information during the breach.
The Dallas-based fiber provider stated in a regulatory filing that it discovered the cyber intrusion on Sunday and suspected the unauthorized third party was a criminal gang.
According to the company, the perpetrator accessed personally identifiable information through specific systems.
Frontier is a prominent communications provider in the United States, offering gigabit Internet speeds via a fiber-optic network to millions of customers and companies in 25 states.
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After detecting the issue, the business was forced to temporarily shut down various services to avoid hackers from moving laterally via the network, which caused some operational disruptions.
Despite this, Frontier believes the attackers obtained access to specific PII data, but does not clarify whether it belongs to customers, employees, or both.
Frontier indicated that it believes it has managed the problem and restored its critical IT infrastructure. The firm is currently resuming normal operations.
Sources indicate that no hacker organization claimed responsibility for the attack as of Thursday afternoon. Dozens of telecoms businesses have been attacked in recent months, as hackers and nation-states ramp up their attacks on consumer data-rich corporations.
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Telecom Cyberbreaches
Most notably, in March, the personal data of millions of current and former AT&T customers, including sensitive information such as social security numbers, addresses, and passcodes, was hacked.
The telecoms behemoth has confirmed the intrusion and taken steps to resolve the problem.
The hacked data affects around 73 million people, including a total of 7.6 million current AT&T subscribers and 65.4 million past accountholders.
The breach, which appears to have happened in 2019 or earlier, also contains personal information such as complete names, email addresses, and birth dates.
AT&T has taken swift action, resetting current users' passcodes and alerting impacted consumers. However, the business has not discovered any evidence suggesting how the data was obtained.
While the hacked data did not include banking details or call history, the disclosure of personal information raises worries about possible abuse and identity theft.
AT&T advises concerned consumers to be watchful by monitoring the transactions on their accounts and credit reports.
Cyberbreach Laws in the US
In December, the Federal Communications Commission amended its data breach guidelines for the first time in 16 years, strengthening requirements for telecommunications businesses to report cybersecurity breaches.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel claimed that the agency's regulations, established more than 15 years ago, are no longer consistent with a modern world in which telecommunications providers have access to a wealth of information about who people are, where people have been, and who people have spoken with.
Despite this, a recent study by experts from the University of Minnesota and George Mason University reportedly found that US cybersecurity breach reporting rules had little to no effect on reducing data breaches in the country.
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