AT&T has periodically tried to downplay the gravity of its recent data breach, but the US telecoms company has now sought to reassure worried consumers with a slew of new security features.
In the most recent development in the ongoing story of the AT&T data hack, the firm has announced that all of its users—affected or not—can now take advantage of a number of complimentary security and identity protection offerings.
These include a free identity theft insurance policy that offers up to $1 million in coverage, which seems to indicate that the company is now beginning to take the data leak seriously.
AT&T new announcements
AT&T has announced numerous additional security measures in response to the March disclosure that data belonging to up to 73 million of its customers had been exposed on an online hacker forum.
In addition to the previously mentioned $1 million identity protection insurance, these also come with access to an identity restoration team and "one year of complimentary credit monitoring, identity theft detection, and resolution services.”
According to KPRC-TV, AT&T appears to have hired the assistance of Experian's IdentityWorks protection arm to help reassure the more than seven million current AT&T customers who have been affected by the hack.
How many AT&T customers were affected by the data breach?
Most estimates suggest that as a result of the historic data breach, the personal information of around 71 million AT&T customers was exposed online.
However, AT&T has attempted to dispute this number on several occasions, having first denied culpability for the breach completely. It has instead stated that it believes approximately 51 million consumers were affected, the majority of whom are former customers.
That is perhaps predictable, given that many individuals would leave a provider who had disclosed their information. As previously stated, the number of current AT&T users believed to be affected is approximately 7 million.
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