Once again, AT&T customer data breached by rogue insider
Looks like AT&T had a spoiled apple on their hands. The company has recently discovered that a rogue employee took it upon themselves to gain unauthorized access to sensitive customer data. The insider may have had deep access to information such as social security numbers and driver’s licenses, though it’s unclear how many folks were affected as the information comes from a letter sent from AT&T’s director of finance and billing operations Michael Chiarmonte to Vermont’s attorney general.
AT&T says law enforcement officials are involved and that the individual responsible for the breach has already been terminated from employment. They’re also forking over the cash for a year’s worth of credit monitoring for all those affected. It sounds like AT&T will send notices directly to any individuals who were affected so there’s no way to know if your information was part of the breach unless you simply don’t get a notice.
AT&T has not yet determined the reason for the breach, whether that be conspiracy to commit fraud or sell information off to third-party no-gooders. Or it could be just as likely that this person was just a nosy punk snooping into personal information because he thought he could get away with it. Whatever the case, though, it appears AT&T is treating it as seriously as they need to.
This isn’t the first time in recent months that AT&T’s been affected by an inside job. The company was a victim to such foulness back in April of this year. We can’t single AT&T out for the unfortunate incidents, though, as there’s no way they can protect themselves from rogue employees. Any company of AT&T’s size is bound to have a few bad apples so the most they can do is react swiftly and appropriately as soon as they realize what’s happened. Good on them that they’ve continued do that with this latest episode.
[via ThreatPost]