AT&T says criminals stole phone records of 'nearly all' customers in data breach

Post by rockskon » Fri, Jul 12, 2024, 8:20 PM UTC

hulitu wrote: post #385

rockskon wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do other ISPs. Yet AT&T is by far the worst of all of them with regards to customer privacy. Did you know that AT&T has a commercial product where they sell Metadata of websites visited (unclear if it's only Netflow or if it includes DNS lookups too) to law enforcement and private investigators? AT&T is a blight on the privacy of U.S. citizens.

> Did you know that AT&T has a commercial product where they sell Metadata of websites visited (unclear if it's only Netflow or if it includes DNS lookups too) to law enforcement Do you think that only AT&T does it ? Welcome to democracy, my friend. /s

Post by advael » Fri, Jul 12, 2024, 8:21 PM UTC

balls187 wrote: post #398

advael wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Needs to be at the level of enforcement by regulatory agencies, large scale lawsuits backed by state governments, and maybe even congressional action These companies have scale as their moat and that's called a monopoly. We need to be aggressively pursuing corporate malfeasance, closing loopholes, and breaking up companies. In my ideal world the entire doctrine of the "corporate veil" would be overturned, but that se…

These companies are so massively large that they price in the risk of databreaches as a cost of doing business. Insurance Underwriters pour through corpo infosec documents, and require only the most basic level of protections. I think instead, a stricter certification standard needs to be created, and all these large companies must pass ANNUAL audits, or simply lose access to government leased spectrum.

Post by awad » Fri, Jul 12, 2024, 8:26 PM UTC

neogodless wrote: post #281

graybeardhacker wrote: post #104

Freeze your credit people! It's super easy. It's not a perfect fix but it's so trivial to do and it will help. https://www.usa.gov/credit-freeze You can unfreeze through an app whenever you want/need to.

You can also freeze your non-credit banking: https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/place-freeze It was recommended that I do this after a checking account was opened using my identity. As others have stated, my default is "frozen." I put temporary thaws on when applying for credit, though in some cases, you'll be informed exactly which agency/agencies will be queried, and may not need to unfreeze all of them.

Post by slg » Fri, Jul 12, 2024, 8:27 PM UTC

balls187 wrote: post #374

advael wrote: post #366

At the scale of this kind of incompetent failure, no human being should be on board with the narrative that we should be blaming "criminals" for this If we don't hold companies accountable for keeping far more access and retention than should be legal, and securing their systems poorly, this situation will never get better

Who is the "we" here? And how should companies be held accountable? It's very rare for someone at the highest level to be held to any kind of liability, and paying fines rarely, if ever, causes these too-big-to-fail corporations to materially impact them. Strictly speaking about the US here.

Post by josh-sematic » Fri, Jul 12, 2024, 8:29 PM UTC

declan_roberts wrote: post #406

I would like to sue AT&T in small claims for this and for leaking my Social Security number. But it's difficult to prove damages in these situations. Does anybody have any advice? Proving damages means showing actual monetary harm.