AT&T PAID A HACKER $370,000 TO ERASE STOLEN PHONE RECORDS

According to Wire, US telecom giant AT&T disclosed that hackers had stolen call records of millions of customers and paid a hacker over $300,000 to delete the data. The hacker, part of the ShinyHunters group, provided proof of deletion. The breach occurred through unsecured Snowflake cloud storage accounts, affecting more than 150 companies.

The stolen AT&T data included phone numbers and call metadata but not the content of communications. AT&T delayed reporting the breach due to potential national security concerns. The hacker behind the breach, John Erin Binns, was arrested in Turkey for a separate T-Mobile data theft case.

‍