AT&T Sends Message to Users: They Were Hacked

Yesterday, AT&T had to give its users the unfortunate message that its systems were infiltrated and users were potentially hacked.

According to Bloomberg's BusinessWeek, less than 1 percent of AT&T's customer's were affected. BusinessWeek has more from AT&T:

“We recently detected an organized and systematic attempt to obtain information on a number of AT&T customer accounts, including yours,” AT&T said in an e-mail to customers. “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.”

AT&T said the hacking attempt used so-called auto script technology to “determine whether AT&T telephone numbers were linked to online AT&T accounts,” company spokesman Mark Siegel wrote in an e-mail.

[...]

“No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information."

BusinessWeek reports this hack has no connection to last year's attempt by someone to obtain email addresses of iPad users through AT&T who managed the addresses.

As cyber attacks against private companies and the government increase, cyber security legislation is expected to come to the Senate sometime early next year, according to BusinessWeek. And, last week, we reported that the military is working out its role in responding to cyber attacks and threats, but has already stated it is prepared to used force in such an event, just as it would on threats on land, sea or air.

[H/T Gizmodo]