US telecom giant AT&T disclosed that hackers had stolen call records for tens of millions of its customers. In a surprising twist, the company paid a member of the hacking team more than $300,000 to delete the stolen data and provide proof of deletion. Hackers Exploited Poorly Secured Snowflake Accounts. The breach affected nearly all AT&T cellular customers and customers of other carriers who communicated with them between May and October 2022, and on January 2, 2023. Landline numbers were also impacted.
Despite AT&T’s payment to delete the stolen data, some customers may still be at risk as others might possess portions of the data. The incident highlights the growing threat of hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in cloud storage systems to steal sensitive information from major corporations.