Verizon employee inadvertently leaks data of 63 thousand colleagues

Verizon, one of the largest American telecommunications companies, has disclosed a data breach impacting 63,206 individuals. The inadvertent disclosure of personal data was attributed to employee wrongdoing.

In a data breach notification filed with authorities in the US state of Maine, Verizon disclosed that on around September 21st, 2023, a company employee obtained a file containing certain employees' personal information without authorization and violating Verizon policy.

According to Verizon’s letter to affected users, the information contained in the file may include name, address, Social Security number or other national identifier, gender, union affiliation, date of birth, and compensation information.

“At this time, we have no evidence that this information has been misused or shared outside of Verizon as a result of this issue. We are working to ensure our technical controls are enhanced to help prevent this type of situation from reoccurring and are notifying applicable regulators about the matter,” the notification reads.

In the filing form, dated February 5th, Verizon describes the leak as “inadvertent disclosure, insider wrongdoing.”

“Verizon recently discovered that an employee inappropriately handled a file containing certain personal information about some Verizon employees. At this point, we have no reason to believe the information was improperly used or that it was shared outside of Verizon. We are notifying the affected employees and applicable regulators about the matter. Our internal review of this matter continues,” Verizon shared an additional comment with Cybernews.

Verizon has arranged complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services for affected individuals, covering up to $1 million in potential fraud damages for 24 months.

“We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by monitoring your free credit reports and reviewing your account statements,” the company said.

More than 117,000 employees worked for Verizon in 2022, according to Statista. The wireless carrier has over 144.8 million subscribers.