After AOL, AT&T faces data breach

American online service providing companies got another blow of data breach last weekend when Hackers broke into the database of AT&T's online store selling Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) equipment in the US and stole credit card information and other personal data from up to 19,000 AT&T Inc. customers who purchased DSL equipment through the company's online store.

Few days back, an online service provider, AOL has faced the same problem and fired its chief technology officer and two other employees who were responsible for the massive data breach that caused more than 36 million members search queries to be released on the Internet.

The AT&T's technicians, however, noticed the problem within hours and immediately shut down the store.

About the incidence, AT&T Chief Privacy Officer Priscilla Hill-Ardoin said, "We recognize that there is an active market for illegally obtained personal information. We are committed to both protecting our customers' privacy and to weeding out and punishing the violators," and disappointed with the incidence Hill-Ardoin said, "We deeply regret this incident."

After discovering the ‘data breach’, the San Antonio, Texas based telecommunication giant immediately notified credit card companies, whose customer accounts were used to order equipment.

Informing about the AT&T’s process in which it is working with law enforcement agencies to track down the hackers, Hill-Ardoin said, "We will work closely with law enforcement to bring these data thieves to account."

AT&T officials informed that the company has already notified, via e-mail, phone, and regular mail, those customers who may have been affected by the data breach. Moreover, the company has also put fraud alerts on all the credit card numbers stolen.

AT&T said it would also pay for credit monitoring services to protect those customers whose credit cards were accessed fraudulently.

Meanwhile, web security experts suggest that to avoid being the next victim, companies must take stock of all their Web sites and assess the security of their sites.