AT&T Pays Hacker $373K in Extortion Payment to Delete Stolen Customer Data

Jul 14, 2024, 09:38 PM

AT&T paid a hacker approximately $373,000 to delete sensitive call and text logs stolen from its Snowflake account. The hacker, identified as a member of the ShinyHunters group, provided a video to AT&T showing the deletion of the data, which exposed nearly all of the company's 110 million customers. The breach was discovered in April 2023, and the payment, described as an extortion payment, was made in mid-May, verified through an analysis of a Bitcoin wallet. AT&T delayed disclosing the breach until now.