A hacker claims to have stolen sensitive data from AT&T and demanded around 400 thousand dollars as ransom to delete the data. Analysis indicates that a transaction in mid-May aligns with the ransom payment, but AT&T has not confirmed if the payment was made. This attack may involve call and text records of nearly all wireless users during a six-month period in 2022, posing a national security risk. Meanwhile, Snowflake Inc. has also suffered reputational damage due to related security incidents.

Odaily Planet Daily News A hacker claiming to have stolen sensitive call and text records from the U.S. telecommunications company AT&T stated that they received approximately $400,000 in ransom to delete this data. An analysis of the bitcoin wallet address provided by the hacker revealed a transaction in mid-May that matched the ransom payment. A source familiar with ransomware negotiations confirmed the payment made by AT&T to the hacker, although it is unclear whether AT&T made the payment to the hacker directly or through a third party. An AT&T spokesperson declined to comment on whether the company paid a ransom to mitigate the consequences of the hacker's attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice also declined to comment on the alleged payment. It is reported that this attack may have exposed a large amount of call and text records of almost all wireless users during a six-month period in 2022, with the scope and details of the data, including some location information, posing national security risks. Some experts point out that the ransom amount in this case seems very low compared to other recent high-profile ransomware incidents. This leak is also one of the many data breaches related to the security incident of the data analytics software provider Snowflake Inc., which is still dealing with the reputational damage caused by this incident. Chainalysis examined the payment records provided by the hacker and compared them with information on the blockchain. The company stated that this appears to be a ransom payment, as someone deposited approximately $380,000 worth of bitcoin into the wallet identified by the hacker at the time, followed by a smaller amount of funds being transferred from that wallet to another known hacker's wallet. It is unclear whether the initial bitcoin payment was made by AT&T. (Bloomberg)

Hackers claim to have stolen sensitive data from AT&T and received a ransom of 400 thousand dollars.