The most recent ATT hack --> a reminder that you should only be communicating with e2e encrypted apps

Don't use your phone to text or make an actual phone call, you can't trust telecom companies to protect you. Instead, use an e2e encrypted apps like: iMessage (and Facetime), Signal, or WhatsApp.

If you were an ATT wireless customer at the end of 2022, then your data was stolen by hackers because AT&T secured it in a database protected only by a username and password (no multi-factor authentication) — I can’t wait for the class action lawsuits on this one!

This is literally being reported everywhere, but here are some details, as discussed in an article by Brian Krebs.

The company said the stolen data includes records of calls and texts for mobile providers that resell AT&T’s service, but that it does not include the content of calls or texts, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or any other personally identifiable information. KrebsonSecurity

This means that your phone number was exposed, and any other phone numbers you texted or called are in this database. So, whoever has this data can reconstruct who you contact and when you contact them.

However, the company said a subset of stolen records included information about the location of cellular communications towers closest to the subscriber, data that could be used to determine the approximate location of the customer device initiating or receiving those text messages or phone calls. KrebsonSecurity

Even worse, some records had cell phone tower data, which means some customers’ locations were also exposed.

Now, it’s pretty trivial to link a phone number to someone’s identity through numerous databases. This means that anyone with this data set can identify any ATT customer (who had service at the end of 2022) and identify who they were texting and calling (and in some cases the location of where they were doing this).

What should you do?

First, if you’re an ATT customer, I would consider switching to another phone provider. This is their second serious breach in the last few months (73M users had their PII compromised in 2023 (we learned about that in March 2024) - article.