Data breach impacts most AT&T customers

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — AT&T confirmed Friday it suffered a massive data breach that affected most of its customers.

The phone giant says the data breach occurred from May 1, 2022, to October 31, 2022.

According to the company, a third party downloaded phone call and text message records of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers. The download did not include the content of those calls and texts but did allow the numbers to be recorded.

AT&T Customer Reagan Finch says she’s noticed more spam calls recently.

“Oh, it’s just a bunch of random area codes and you know it’s a scam when they are silent for five seconds and then they go, ‘Hello, this is so and so,'” said Finch.

U.S.F. Professor Thomas Hyslip is a cyber security expert and says the data breach is valuable to thieves.

“In this instance, just the phone numbers themselves are fairly valuable because you’ve probably heard about all of the spam, fraud phone calls that try to social engineer you into giving up information or send you a text message where they are claiming to be your bank or an Amazon driver or a FedEx driver, so that’s the value of this information,” said Hyslip.

He says many fraud cases begin with thieves knowing a phone number is active and this data breach would allow that.

“Just know, do not click on a link,” advised Hyslip. “The Federal Government or local Sheriff, they’re not going to call you if you are a suspect of a crime, they’re going to come to your door. If you did not request a new security code, that’s a new one, do not give it to anybody.”

He says consumers can protect themselves by locking down their credit.

“The simplest thing you can do, and it’s free, is do a credit freeze. Go to the three credit bureaus, do a credit freeze, and then no one can open an account without verifying it’s you,” said Hyslip.

AT&T has a website with information regarding the data breach, which can be found here .

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