Well, folks. Looks like it might be time for some of us to change the ol’ passwords.
And also monitor your other accounts.
Unlike Verizon’s data leak from two months ago, that only affected about 63,000 people and that was just their employees. This one is a massive collection of millions of customers.
And it also involves former customers.
So since AT&T has admitted that personal data has been leaked to the dark web, it’s best to take some steps to ensure that your not a victim to identity theft.
73M AT&T customers personal data posted on the dark web, company says https://t.co/TCcC8mzFB9 pic.twitter.com/GCtTWdbqGy
— New York Post (@nypost) March 30, 2024
Fox News reports:
Millions of AT&T customers could be at risk of having their data exposed after the carrier confirmed user data was published on the dark web.
More than 73 million current and former customers now have information like their Social Security number, address and more out in the open.
According to AT&T, the leak was published two weeks ago. So far, all the data is from 2019 or earlier. It includes information from 7.6 million current users and a whopping 65.4 million former customers. AT&T is investigating and says it’s still unclear if the data comes from the company or a third party.
What information was involved?
According to the company’s website, “The information varied by customer and account but may have included full name, email address, mailing address, phone number, social security number, date of birth, AT&T account number, and passcode.”
How do you know if you are affected by the data leak?
The company is contacting current and former customers whose data has been leaked. Customers affected by this security breach can expect to receive a direct communication from AT&T via email or letter regarding the incident.
What action is AT&T taking?
In addition to these notifications, AT&T has already reset the passcodes of affected customers.
AT&T discovered the information in a specific data set on the dark web. The company is still combing through the set but released this statement:
“AT&T has launched a robust investigation supported by internal and external cybersecurity experts. Based on our preliminary analysis, the data set appears to be from 2019 or earlier, impacting approximately 7.6 million current AT&T account holders and approximately 65.4 million former account holders. Currently, AT&T does not have evidence of unauthorized access to its systems resulting in exfiltration of the data set. We encourage current and former customers with questions to visit www.att.com/accountsafety for more information.”
How do I check if my information is on the dark web?
You can go to haveibeenpwned.com to check if your information was sold on the dark web. Just enter your email address into the search bar. The website will search to see your data and display if there were data breaches associated with your email address on various sites. You may have even received an email from the website already saying that some of your data was stolen.
What to do if your information has been stolen?
So, what do you do if you are notified or discover that your info is on the haveibeenpwned.com site? You should take immediate action to minimize the damage. Here are some steps that you can follow:
Change your passwords
If hackers have recorded your passwords, they could access your online accounts and steal your data or money. ON ANOTHER DEVICE (i.e., your laptop or desktop), you should change your passwords for all your important accounts, such as email, banking, social media, etc. You want to do this on another device so the hacker isn’t’ recording you setting up your new password on your hacked device. And you should also use strong and unique passwords that are hard to guess or crack. You can also use a password manager to generate and store your passwords securely.
Enable two-factor authentication
You’ll want to activate two-factor authentication for an extra layer of security.
Monitor your accounts and transactions
You should check your online accounts and transactions regularly for any suspicious or unauthorized activity. If you notice anything unusual, immediately report it to the service provider or authorities. You should also review your credit reports and scores to see if there are any signs of identity theft or fraud.
Contact your bank and credit card companies
If hackers have obtained your bank or credit card information, they could use it to make purchases or withdrawals without your consent. You should inform your bank and credit card companies of the situation. They can help you freeze or cancel your cards, dispute any fraudulent charges and issue new cards for you.
You should also contact one of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion) and request a fraud alert to be placed on your credit file. This will make it more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name without verification. You can even freeze your credit, if need be.
Use identity theft protection
Identity Theft protection companies can monitor personal information like your home title, Social Security Number, phone number and email address and alert you if it is being used to open an account. They can also assist you in freezing your bank and credit card accounts to prevent further unauthorized use by criminals.
You can check to see if you’re data has leaked at HaveIBeenPwned.com (Pwned is a slang term that means ‘you got owned’ or tricked or played.)
AT&T said a data leak about two weeks ago could have affected about 73 million people https://t.co/LPh2f9lcXM pic.twitter.com/RpKKLZw6SK
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 31, 2024
In related news, it might be worth getting this (just sayin’):
FREEDOM CHAT: Get It For Free, No Censorship, No Spying…Invite To My Private Channel
How cool is this?
Noah here and I’d like to introduce you to something called Freedom Chat.
Have you heard of it?
It’s awesome.
And you’re about to hear about it from some really big names, but just remember I told you about it first….
Because we’ve always got you covered with the latest and greatest here at WLTReport!
But what is it and why am I so excited about it?
Allow me to explain…
Freedom Chat is a conservative-based messaging app offers something that other platforms do not: complete and total privacy with verifiable end-to-end encryption, no storage of messages on the server, and no commercial use of user data.
In other words, NO CENSORSHIP!
NO SPYING!
NO FINES AND PENALTIES! (Hello SHAFT!)
NO BIG BROTHER!
Freedom Chat has hammered home their commitment to privacy and transparency by publishing a 20-page white paper that details their security protocols like which algorithms they use, as well as a step-by-step encryption analysis with snippets of their codebase. Freedom Chat, with their self-destructing messages, encryption verification, screenshot protection, and “sensors off” (which disables your camera and microphone to prevent any possible eavesdropping by big tech or nosey tyrants) is giving privacy back to users.
Click here to take back your right to privacy and free speech and download Freedom Chat today.
Why is it free?
Freedom Chat is free for the first 50 messages you send, so you can try it without obligation. If you want to send more than 50 messages in a month, it’s only $2.95 for unlimited use.
How is it so cheap for unlimited messages?
Freedom Chat doesn’t store your messages on their servers – which means costs are low. Other messaging platforms pay millions to store messages – Freedom Chat doesn’t.
Here’s the BIG QUESTION you may have, which I had myself: How can I trust this is true? How can I trust they don’t truly store my messages?
The answer is simple: it’s all in the pricing listed above.
Storing mass information isn’t cheap.
Why do you think they keep building these massive Data Centers all over the place?
To store all the data they steal from you!
And those data centers aren’t cheap!
But Freedom Chat doesn’t need to pay for expensive Data Centers….because they don’t store your data! It simply doesn’t exist!
So they can charge only $2.95 for unlimited use — which is only if you want more features than the FREE plan.
If they were storing the data, they’d quickly go out of business at that price.
To see exactly how Freedom Chat works watch their 3-minute video tutorial below:
If a government agency, for example, wanted to access communication from someone’s phone by reaching out to Freedom Chat, they would be required to respond, legally. However, there would be nothing to see, thanks to the app’s verifiable end-to-end encryption, which prohibits anyone other than the intended recipient from reading a message. Better yet, there is also no storage of messages on Freedom Chat’s servers, so there would be no way to see what a user wrote since it was already removed from their servers.
Users can also decide whether to utilize self-destructing messages, images, and videos – which are automatically unsent after a specified period of time.
Freedom Chat is easy-to-use, aesthetically appealing, and has all the same user-friendly features of today’s big tech apps with more privacy-focused features and doesn’t sell or exploit users’ personal data for political gain.
Click here to take back your right to privacy and free speech and download Freedom Chat today!
I’ve been using it for about a month now and I love it.
In fact, I’ve created a Private Group in there where we can all chat together.
You want in?
Yes, I’m on Twitter and Telegram and TruthSocial….and they’re great, but I get so many notifications on those that I don’t see everything.
This will be different.
This will be only me and you in a private channel.
Kind of like private, direct access to me on my phone?
Me and 5 million other patriots who love America?
We can all hang out and chat without fear of spying or censorship and without the other distractions on those other networks.
So if you want in, it’s two simple setps.
1️⃣ First you have to get the App…
It’s FREE, click here and test it out for yourself!
2️⃣ Once you’re in, tap on the Channels button and then Search for WLTReport w/ Noah.
It will look like this:
Once you find me, join that Channel and you’re in!
How cool is that?
Super easy, right?
Soon you’ll be hearing about this all over the place, but you can get in early before everyone else.
I’ll see you over there!
(Note: Thank you for supporting businesses like the one presenting a sponsored message in this article and ordering through the links provided, which benefits WLTReport. We appreciate your support and we are proud to bring you awesome new companies like this one that we love using!)
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.
