AT&T Data Breach

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Created on Tuesday, 14 October 2014 18:44

Written by Yolanda Liang

Around the NEK -- A security breach at AT&T may have compromised the personal information of some Vermont residents. The breach occurred in August and around 1,600 customers were affected by this.

The company has notified the affected customers by mail and the sample letter has posted to the Vermont Attorney General's website.

This breach is due to a AT&T employee who violated the company's privacy and security policy by accessing customers' accounts. Important information such as social security number and driver's license number would have been able to view.

The statement written by AT&T's Michael Chiaramonte, "On behalf of AT&T, please accept my sincere apology for this incident. Simply but, this is not the way we conduct business and, as a result, this individual no longer works for AT&T."

"We take our customers' privacy very seriously and value the trust they have in us," The carrier wrote in the letter.

For those affected customers, AT&T is taking several steps in order to help address any inconvenience this incident may cause. First of all, AT&T offered a year of free credit monitoring. Secondly, the company will reverse the unauthorized changes or charges that made to an account. Thirdly, the company has notified the Federal Law Enforcement of the unauthorized access of customer proprietary network information.

To strenghthen customers' account security, AT&T recommend that if customers who currently have a passcode on their accounts, please change it; and if customers do not have a passcode, please add one for safety.

There is a similar incident happened in September. Shaw's in Littleton, New Hampshire was attacked by the malware, which has captured credit data from its customers as well.