AT&T database of 70 million users sold on hacker forum
Only days after the T-Mobile data breach, the same threat actor is selling 70 million AT and T users’ records. The mobile service provider denied the data leak claim, saying the data didn’t come from any of their systems.
ShinyHunters, the same group of threat actors that posted T-Mobile users’ data for sale just days ago, is now selling 70 million records that allegedly belong to another mobile service provider - AT&T. The sample of data for sale includes AT&T users’ full names, social security numbers, email addresses, and dates of birth.
ShinyHunters is selling the database for a starting price of $200,000.
AT&T denied the claim that the data was leaked, suggesting that it is either inauthentic or gathered from other sources.
“Based on our investigation today, information that appeared in an internet chat room does not appear to have come from our systems,” MarketWatch quoted the cellphone carrier.
AT&T has suffered a data breach before. In 2015, the company agreed to pay a $25 million fine for an insider breach. As a matter of fact, in May, a threat actor was looking to hire a T-Mobile and/or AT&T employee, presumably to help them stage an insider attack on their employer.
The claim of yet another enormous user database comes only days after another mobile service provider T-Mobile has confirmed a data breach. According to their latest statement, an attacker illegally accessed a database containing information on more than 40 million past, current, and prospective users of T-Mobile US.
Late last week, T-Mobile was tipped about claims in an online forum that a threat actor has compromised T-Mobile systems. The company announced it had located and immediately closed the access point that might have been used to illegally gain access to the organization’s servers.
“Our preliminary analysis is that approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts’ information appears to be contained in the stolen files, as well as just over 40 million records of former or prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with T-Mobile. Importantly, no phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information were compromised in any of these files of customers or prospective customers,” the company said in a press release.
The experts we spoke to insisted that this data could be used for social engineering and identity theft.
ShinyHunters is a notorious threat actor group and is responsible for multiple major data breaches. According to HackRead, they have targeted companies like Mashable, 123RF, Minted, Couchsurfing, Animal Jam, and others.
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