Updated 3:38 pm ET, Monday, November 21
AT&T, the nation’s second largest wireless phone company, on Monday sent an email to selected customers warning them of an “organized and systematic” hacking attempt on their accounts, Bloomberg Businessweek reported.
“We recently detected an organized and systematic attempt to obtain information on a number of AT&T customer accounts, including yours,” the email read. “We do not believe that the perpetrators of this attack obtained access to your online account or any of the information contained in that account.”
“No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information,” a spokesperson told the AFP.
AFP also reports that the hackers were attempting to link AT&T phone numbers to online accounts.
It is unclear at this time just how many of AT&T’s 100 million customers were affected and what measures AT&T took to detect and repel the attack.
Separately, AT&T is feuding with the U.S. government and other wireless carriers in court over its proposed $39 billion merger with the nation’s fourth-largest wireless network, T-Mobile, which the Justice Department has said would violate antitrust law. If allowed to proceed, the merger would make a combined AT&T/T-Mobile the largest network in the U.S. by subscribers.
We’ve reached out to AT&T for more information and will update when we receive a response.
Late update: AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel told TPM via telephone that “less than 1 percent” of AT&T’s subscribers were targeted in the attempt. Siegel said the company “learned of it [the attempted hacking] recently,” and that it had occurred over a period “over the last few days.”
AT&T also emailed TPM the following statement:
“The people in question appear to have used ‘auto script’ technology to determine whether AT&T telephone numbers were linked to online AT&T accounts. No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information. In the meantime, out of an abundance of caution, we are advising the account holders involved.”
“Auto-script” technology refers to any malware, or other benign program, that runs on its own in the background without specific intervention or direction from the creator, aside form setting up the initial script. It’s useful for batching any repetitive digital task, such as accruing more points in Turntable.fm or sending out batch friend invitations on Facebook.
Siegel noted that the company would “work robustly to identify” who was behind the attempt and said that AT&T was “always vigilant” of attempted intrusions, but declined to be more specific due to company security policies.
