CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
AT&T announced that the personal data belonging to 73 million current or former customers has been leaked online. The data involved appears to be from a breach in 2019 or earlier and is linked to 7.6 million customers and 65.4 million former account holders. The information includes addresses, social security numbers, and passcodes. The company announced in a statement that it is unclear whether the data originated from its own systems or via a third-party supplier. While a data breach is never a positive thing for the company, the silver lining here is that most of it comes from past account holders. AT&T has brought in a cybersecurity firm to investigate and has reset customers’ passwords. At this point it is unclear what the financial fallout from this incident will be, but we expect it to be immaterial.