AT&T HACKED – COMPANY PROVIDES NO SIGNIFICANT PROTECTION TO VICTIMS

AT&T Inc. said its web site was hacked last weekend, and records and credit card information of up to 19,000 customers was compromised. The steps taken by AT&T to protect its customers are limited to only a small number of potential identity crimes leaving its customers exposed.

AT&T said that hackers targeted a store on the company's Web site where customers purchased DSL equipment. AT&T is providing a breach notification to its customers by e-mail, phone and letter as required by law. "We are committed to both protecting our customers' privacy and to weeding out and punishing the violators," said Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer at AT&T. "We deeply regret this incident and we intend to pay for credit monitoring services for customers whose accounts have been impacted."

Once again a large corporation is substituting “credit monitoring” for increased protection following a successful hacking attack. Stolen information can and will be use in a wide variety of crimes including employment fraud, drivers license fraud, criminal identity theft, tax fraud, and over 80 identity crimes – not just credit fraud. AT&T’s failure to protect its customers from the full range of identity theft crimes is troublesome.