AT&T Customers Information Security Breach: Offers Apology and One Year's worth of Free Credit Monitoring Services to Customers

AT&T the telecommunications company is in the news for security breach of its customers. An employee working in the company was the cause for this illegal act putting the company in a tight spot. However, AT&T has come forward with an apology to its customers and is also offering one year's free credit monitoring services to those who may have been victims of this illegal act. An insider had illegally accessed personal information of its subscribers which include account information along with their social security numbers and driver's license information. An unspecified number of AT&T accounts were believed to have been affected by this offence. This incident occurred in the month of August 2014.

The Director of Finance Billing Operations Micheal Chiarmonte wrote a letter to Vermont's Attorney General stating that this breach had occurred in the month of August and the employee in question was able to access account information of AT&T customers.

Chiarmonte states in the letter that we recently determined that one of our employees violated our strict privacy and security guidelines by accessing your account without authorization in August 2014 and while doing so, would have been able to view and may have obtained your account information including your social security number and driver's license number. He went on to write that, while accessing the account, the employee would have been able to view Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI), without proper authorization.

It is not known how many customers may be affected or the number of states that may have been the victims of this violation.

Mark Siegel the spokesman of AT&T said in a statement to Re/Code that the breach affected a limited number of customers. However, he did not specify the number of accounts that were breached.

AT&T pointed out that they are working with the law enforcement authorities and the person in question the employee does not work any longer with the organization. The company has also reached out to customers who may have been affected by this offence.

AT&T said that customers should change their password on their accounts and any unauthorized charges that customers have borne due to the breach would be reversed.