Alliance Bank in Sulphur Springs

9 Million AT&T Customers Affected In Data Breach

March 15, 2023- Service provider AT&T has announced a recent data breach within their system exposing Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) of nearly 9 million customers. The CPNI holds information such as first names, wireless account numbers, wireless phone numbers and even email addresses.

An AT&T spokesperson said, “A small percentage of impacted customers also had exposure of rate plan name, past due amount, monthly payment amount, various monthly charges and/or minutes used. The information was several years old.”

Law enforcement has been notified by AT&T of the data breach, however no personal user information was given during the report. AT&T only reported that a breach had occurred within their systems as required by Federal Trade Commission.

How to protect your data

AT&T is urging people to make a CPNI Restriction Request, which would turn off CPNI data sharing on their accounts and reduce the risk of having their information exposed in the future should AT&T use it again for third-party vendor marketing purposes. 

Have good anti-virus software installed on all of your devices. Using antivirus software is the best way to protect yourself from data breaches on your devices. This will also alert you about phishing emails or ransomware scams.

Using Identity theft protection will help allow you to know when your personal information has been used. Identity theft companies can monitor personal information like your Social Security number, phone number, and email address, and alert you if it is being sold on the dark web or being used to open an account.

Author: Ethan Klein

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