AT&T has announced that over the weekend “unauthorized persons”
illegally accessed credit card information and other personal data from
“fewer than 19,000” customers who purchased Internet equipment through
the company’s online store.
The intrusion was discovered within hours and the online store was shut down immediately. AT&T also contacted the major credit-card companies to warn them about potentially affected customer accounts. The incident is currently under investigation by law enforcement.
In the mean time, AT&T is notifying customers by email, phone and letter. The company will also be paying for credit monitoring services for those customers. Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T explained: “We deeply regret this incident and we intend to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted. We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account.”
