AT&T is warning customers that their personal information might
have been breached as part of a scheme to unlock and resell devices.
The company said in a filing
to the California Attorney General's office that employees at an
unnamed service provider it works with had accessed the personal data of
customers including social security numbers and date of birth.
According to a letter the company has sent to customers, the breach
occurred earlier this year between April 9 and 21 as three workers
pulled the customer data in order to request unlock codes from AT&T
which could then be used to remove the device from AT&T's network
and allow the device to be resold.
The information was apparently
part of a scheme by the group to unlock and resell devices on the
AT&T network. The company typically allows users to unlock their
devices from its network by entering a code which can be obtained from
the company by supplying account information including portions of the
customer's social security number.
California law
requires companies to issue a public disclosure any time they suffer a
breach affecting more than 500 residents, though the company has not
said exactly how many people were affected in this incident.
AT&T
said that it has snail-mailed letters to the customers whose data was
accessed, and is offering to pick up the tab for one year of
credit-monitoring services, least the social security numbers be used to
register unauthorized charge accounts.
The company is advising
affected users to register for the credit reporting services and change
the passcode associated with their accounts.
AT&T's disclosure
comes just days after restaurant chain PF Chang's said that it had
fallen victim to a breach of employee card data. The company, fearing a
breach of its payment system similar to the Target hack, has decided to
temporarily revert to the use of carbon paper imprinting for all customer card payments.
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