AT&T Pays ShinyHunters Hacker $373K in Bitcoin to Delete Stolen Customer Data

Jul 14, 2024, 06:50 PM

AT&T paid a hacker approximately $400,000 to delete stolen call and text records from its Snowflake account. The hacker, associated with 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 of $373K in Bitcoin was made in mid-May, as confirmed by an analysis of a Bitcoin wallet. The stolen data is believed to be the only complete set, although small snippets were shared with a few individuals.