Tag Archive for: AT&T

FBI, Department of Homeland Security investigating AT&T outages

/in


Several agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, are investigating whether the widespread AT&T outages are the result of a cyberattack or hack.

Reports of disruptions started flooding in early Thursday morning around 4 a.m., with some 30,000 AT&T customers complaining of technical difficulties, leaving them unable to place calls, text or access the internet. Within hours, the number of people suffering issues more than doubled, and by 9:30 a.m., some 74,000 people reported having network connection issues, according to downdetector.com, a website that provides real-time information about the status of online services.

AT&T, the nation’s largest service carrier, acknowledged the outages in a statement shortly thereafter, saying 75% of its network had been restored. According to downdetector.com, some 15,000 users still had issues as of 1 p.m.

So far, no reason has been given for the service problems, but the White House said multiple federal agencies have communicated with AT&T about the outages, Reuters reported. National Security spokesman John Kirby confirmed Thursday that both the FBI and the DHS are looking into the matter in addition to working with partners in the tech industry to “see what we can do from a federal perspective to lend a hand to their investigative efforts to figure out what happened here.”

Kirby added that while they “don’t have all the answers” yet, the investigative efforts are ongoing.

“I mean, this just happened earlier today. And so we’re working very hard to see if we can get to the ground truth of exactly what happened,” he said.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — an agency under the DHS umbrella, which is tasked with monitoring cyber threats — echoed Kirby’s statement in a confidential memo obtained by ABC News. It said “the cause of the outage is unknown, and there are no indications of malicious activity.”

The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the outages.

With News Wire Services

Source…

Google PassKey Next Gen Security Eliminates 2FA & Sim Swap Scam | How To Use Feature & Sign In Now

/in



Hackers accessed personal data from 9 million AT&T customers

/in


What just happened? Many AT&T customers recently received an email saying hackers accessed their Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). Classic phishing vocabulary, but the alert isn’t a scam. Users should take steps to secure their AT&T account, including fortifying their password and filing a CPNI restriction request.

Telecom provider AT&T recently alerted customers that a cyberattack exposed some information from their accounts. No credit card data, social security numbers, passwords, or dates of birth got out, but the hack exposed some details regarding users’ phone plans.

Information at risk includes customer first names, email addresses, number of lines on accounts, device types, device upgrade eligibility, rate plan names, past due amounts, monthly payment amounts, and minutes used. The company told Bleeping Computer that the breach affected about 9 million accounts.

Hackers aimed the January attack at one of AT&T’s marketing vendors rather than the company itself. The provider didn’t identify the vendor but said the attackers exploited one of the vendor’s security vulnerabilities, which has since been patched. The company also contacted federal law enforcement as legally required, assuring customers that it didn’t share personal account information with authorities.

Impacted customers should enable additional password protections, like logging in with a PIN. A PIN will protect users’ accounts from bad actors calling AT&T and impersonating them using the personal information they obtained. Customers can also request CPNI restrictions, which limit but do not stop the company from marketing additional products to users.

Rival provider T-Mobile suffered a more significant attack in January. The breach impacted 37 million customers exposing names, billing addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, account numbers, and service plan information. However, no social security numbers or passwords were leaked.

The company theorized the attacker used an API to access the data starting last November until the company detected and stopped their actions on January 5. Another breach last summer affected 77 million T-Mobile customers, after…

Source…

T-MOBILE THE RE CARRIER: ending autopay discount and putting you at risk!

/in