Senators Grill AT&T Post Unauthorized Download of 109M Customers’
In April, a hacking event resulted in the unauthorized download of around 109 million AT&T Inc (T:US) customer accounts. The information was extracted from AT&T's workspace on the Snowflake Inc (SNOW:US) cloud platform and included six months' worth of call and text data from 2022.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Josh Hawley sought detailed explanations from AT&T about the breach. They voiced worries about the possible exploitation of the stolen data by cybercriminals, spies, and stalkers, and inquired if AT&T planned to compensate the impacted customers.
Senator Blumenthal serves as Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.
Previously on July 12, AT&T addressed the security breach in an official statement:
“We learned that AT&T customer data was illegally downloaded from our workspace on a third-party cloud platform. We started an investigation and engaged leading cybersecurity experts to help us determine the nature and scope of the issue. We have confirmed the access point has been secured.”
US lawmakers have reported 30 trades in T stock over the past year. Most recently, Representative Mike Kelly reported his spouse’s sale on April 11, 2024, with values ranging up to $15,000. Rep. Virginia Foxx bought between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of AT&T shares; upping her previous stock purchase on February 2. Other US politicians who traded AT&T earlier this year were Representatives Carol Miller, Chip Roy, and Brian Mast.
On the other hand, Rep. Ro Khanna was the only lawmaker trading SNOW shares in 2024: he reported two purchases of the stock on July 9 in value ranging from $1,001 to $15,000 each.
AT&T has been performing fairly well in the stock market, with shares trading around 11% higher YTD. In contrast, SNOW stock is down by 28.56% YTD.
