AT&T has been occasionally keen to downplay the severity of the recent data breach it suffered, yet at the same time the US telecoms giant has now moved to appease concerned customers with a handful of new security perks.
The latest twist in the ongoing AT&T data breach saga sees the company announcing that all of its users, affected or otherwise by the leak, can now benefit from various security and identity protection freebies.
These include a free identity theft insurance policy with up to $1 million worth of coverage, which would seem to suggest it’s starting to the take the data breach seriously at long last.
What is AT&T Offering Customers After Data Breach?
Following on from March’s revelation that the data of as many as 73 million of its customers had been leaked on a hacker forum online, AT&T has announced a slew of new security safeguards.
As well as the aforementioned $1 million identity protection insurance, these also include “one year of complimentary credit monitoring, identity theft detection, and resolution services” as well as access to an identity restoration team.
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First reported by local Houston, TX-based news outlet KPRC-TV, AT&T has apparently enlisted the services of Experian’s IdentityWorks protection arm to help reassure the more than seven million current AT&T customers caught in the crosshairs of the breach.
How Many AT&T Customers Were Affected by the Data Breach?
According to most estimates, some 71 million AT&T customers had their details leaked online as part of the historic data breach.
However, AT&T has at time sought to dispute this number, having initially denied responsibility for the hack altogether. It has instead proffered that it believes around 51 million customers were affected, the majority of which are ex-customers.
That’s perhaps unsurprising, as many people would likely leave a provider that had leaked their data. As mentioned above, the number of current AT&T subscribers understood to be impacted is around 7 million.
What AT&T Customers Should Do Today
First of all, AT&T customers past and present should all check if they’ve been directly affected by the data breach.
AT&T says it has notified all impacted parties as well as taking action like resetting the passcodes for hacked accounts, but you can also seize the initiative yourself if you’re concerned.
Microsoft security researcher Troy Hunt has long maintained a data breach checking website called Have I Been Pwned? and it remains our go-to resource for people wanting to check if they’ve been caught up in anything murky online.
We love it because all you do is input your email address and it tells you if it’s associated with any data leakage online, with its database including the AT&T data breach and many others.
Beyond that, we always recommend setting up a password manager to help make securing your online accounts with unique, complex passphrases easier.
As evidence by the recent Roku data breach, many hacks succeed because people wantonly recycle their passwords across multiple accounts, which is like leaving the door unlocked for cyber crooks.
