The harsh blow AT&T takes: it has no choice but to dig deep into its pockets

AT&T recently suffered a significant financial blow. Just a few days ago, a federal court approved a multimillion-dollar settlement that requires the company to pay $177 million. All of this is due to a series of data breaches that affected millions of its customers.

This fine, although significant, doesn't come out of nowhere. It is the direct consequence of serious mistakes made by the company in managing its users' personal information.

AT&T repeatedly makes mistakes

In 2023, AT&T faced two major data breaches, one in May and another in July. These security breaches exposed sensitive information of tens of millions of people. In one of them, cybercriminals managed to copy call and text message records stored on a cloud platform called Snowflake.

These records correplied to a six-month period in 2022 and affected almost the entire customer base of the company. But that wasn't all. In March 2024, it also revealed that they were investigating the appearance of personal data of more than 73 million people on the dark web.

According to the operator, these were data that probably dated from 2019 or earlier. Although the company insists that it isn't responsible for these attacks, it accepted the financial settlement. Especially "to avoid the costs and uncertainty of a long and complicated litigation."

The recent settlement approved by federal judge Ada Brown includes individual payments that can reach up to $5,000. Mainly for those who can prove economic losses resulting from the breaches. Those who haven't suffered direct losses, but whose data were compromised, will also receive a smaller compensation.

In addition, AT&T will offer free identity protection services as an additional measure to reassure affected customers. This decision is part of the package of measures aimed at regaining public trust after the scandal.

More problems for AT&T

To this is added another sanction. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also fined AT&T $13 million for another security incident. In this case, the breach was caused by a cloud service provider whose contract with AT&T had expired years earlier.

The leaked data belonged to customers who used the company's services between 2015 and 2017. They were supposed to have already been deleted, but that wasn't the case.

This series of mistakes puts AT&T at the center of the debate over personal data protection. Although the operator claims that it is strengthening its security systems, the truth is that the damage is already done.