August 29, 2006 5:45 PM PDT
AT&T hack exposes 19,000 identities
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The information that was illegally accessed includes credit card numbers, AT&T said in a statement. The cyberattack affects about 19,000 customers who purchased equipment for high-speed DSL Internet connections through AT&T's Web site, the company said.
"We deeply regret this incident," Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T, said in the statement. "We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account."
The break-in occurred over the weekend and was discovered within hours, after which the online store was shut down, AT&T said. The telecommunications company quickly notified credit card companies and is in the process of contacting the affected customers via e-mail, phone and letter, it said.
The incident is the latest in a long string of data security breaches. Since early last year, more than 90 million personal records have been exposed in dozens of incidents, according to information compiled by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
AT&T is offering to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted because they could be at risk of identity fraud. The company also has made available a toll-free number to affected customers to call for more information.
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http://www.techknowbizzle.com/2006/07/times-getting-even-tougher-for-vets.html
Also, taking charge and contacting credit card companies themselves shows the kind of devotion that other affected companies/organizations should take. While these continuing breaches are still not a good sign, it is good that companies are finally manning up and taking the right steps to help their customers get back on the right track.
http://www.essentialsecurity.com/Documents/article17.htm
Damned if I can understand how any of these companies (ATT, Verizon, Citibank etc.) allow a system design that is so easily compromised. I can understand "in process" transactions being compromised, but why have a database with completed transactions available for external access? I am sure I am not seeing the whole techie picture, but if a server/database is offline you can't get to it; keep them offline till you do your billing. There has got to be a better way of securing customer data!
Ultimately if our identities are stolen and our credits affected - these same companies will treat us as untouchables.
There should be legislation to enforce liabilities for these kind of breaches.
Unfortunately, these types of '[i]breaches[/i]' are on the upswing from other databases, too. It [u]will[/u] only be a matter of time before we [b][u]ALL[/u][/b] have our personal information exposed for anyone to use as they please.
So much window dressing in corporate mission statements these days!
Does anyone actually say "I'm sorry, I screwed up", anymore?