A hacker group has claimed responsibility for leaking 31 million AT&T customer records, raising serious concerns over data privacy and potential financial fraud. The dataset, which allegedly includes full names, IP addresses, and tax IDs, was posted on a well-known cybercrime forum earlier this month.
AT&T has not yet confirmed the breach, and security researchers say there is not enough evidence to verify the claim.
“If there are actually 31 million lines of this kind of information, that’s quite a serious breach of user privacy,” researchers from Cybernews stated.
Researchers Unable to Confirm Breach Scope Based on Limited Sample
The Cybernews team examined a sample from the leak, which was said to represent the broader dataset. However, the sample only contained information from a single individual, making it impossible to verify the scale or authenticity of the full breach.
According to the sample, the leaked data fields include:
- Full names
- Dates of birth
- Genders
- Tax ID numbers
- Device IDs and Cookie IDs
- IP addresses
- Full physical addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
Based on the format of the sample, researchers estimate that over 3 million AT&T users could have had similarly detailed personal information exposed—if the full dataset is real.
“We can’t really confirm the breach without a proper sample file. The attacker was pretty active in May, with tens of posts with all sorts of data,” the researchers said.
High Risk for Identity Theft, Financial Fraud, and Social Engineering
If the data leak is genuine, it would present a high risk of identity theft, financial fraud, and account takeovers. The combined details—names, addresses, tax IDs, and IPs—could be used to create highly convincing phishing campaigns or to impersonate victims for malicious purposes.
Attackers could also exploit this level of personal data to bypass multi-factor authentication or open fraudulent accounts in victims’ names.
AT&T’s Size Makes It a High-Profile Target
AT&T is one of the largest telecommunications providers in the world, with annual revenue exceeding $122 billion. Its customer base and infrastructure make it a prime target for cybercriminals.
This is not the first time the company has faced a security incident. In April 2024, AT&T disclosed that customer data was illegally downloaded from a third-party cloud platform, impacting nearly all of its users.
The company has not commented on the latest claim. Cybernews notes that the attacker behind the alleged breach was highly active throughout May, posting various datasets across multiple platforms.
