Reports claim AT&T paid $300,000 to attackers to delete data.
AT&T is alleged to have paid an attacker more than $300,000 to delete data captured in a recent breach.
According to Wired, the attacker is part of the ShinyHunters hacking group who have stolen data from a number of victims through unsecured Snowflake cloud storage accounts.
They said they initially demanded $1 million from AT&T but ultimately agreed to a third of that, with the company paying $300,000 for video proof that the data had been deleted.
Whilst there was no indication of who controlled the wallets, there was evidence that a transaction occurred in the amount of about 5.72 bitcoin - the equivalent of $373,646 at the time of the transaction.
AT&T has not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
Unexpected Action
The breach could affect tens of millions of its cellular customers, after the records were stolen from outside AT&T’s network, and via Snowflake - one of many incidents that the cloud data company has experienced this summer.
William Wright, CEO of Closed Door Security, said: “As one of the world’s leading telco providers, this is an action few would expect. AT&T should be setting the bar for security, not funding threat actors.
“Most large enterprises would want to avoid this at all costs as it sends a very bad message to the criminal world and can seriously harm reputations. Let’s just hope the attacker keeps their end of the bargain.”
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
