Recent data breaches at AT&T could prove to be extremely costly for the company. The telecommunications giant will be paying millions to customers as part of a class action settlement, and some customers could receive thousands.
The Kroll Settlement Administration says that in 2024, customers had their sensitive information leaked on the dark web. This breach in March included addresses, social security numbers, birthdates, passcodes, billing numbers and phone numbers.
Another breach later that year in July compounded the issue. In that instance, more customer data was collected, including call logs for individual customers.
The settlement website says that customers can submit a claim by Thursday, November 18. If they submit documents that prove they were affected by the data breaches, they could receive up to $5,000.
Additionally, those who had their Social Security numbers leaked as part of the first data breach can apply for a tiered payout system. Tier one in that system is five times higher than tier two’s amount.
Customers who were affected in the second data breach could also be eligible for up to $2,500, putting the total payment for customers at as much as $7,500.
Back in 2024, the AT&T data breaches were noted as a significant lapse in cybersecurity, putting thousands of customers at risk of having their identities or finances compromised.
“These are incredibly sensitive pieces of personal information and, when taken together at the scale of information that appears to be included in this AT&T breach, they present a massive NSA-like window into Americans’ activity,” said University of Toronto researcher John Scott-Railton about the breach.
Scott-Railton called the hack a “megabreach” in an interview with CNBC, and other experts agreed that the amount of sensitive information involved was severe.
“If you have somebody’s metadata, you know when they go to work, where they go to work, where they sleep every night,” said Thomas Rid, professor in the cybersecurity studies institute at Johns Hopkins.
In total, AT&T is expected to pay $177 million to customers as a result of the settlement. As the end of the year and the deadline to file approaches, we’ll see if those predictions turn out to be accurate.
