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Reddington revealed negotiating comparable deals with various other companies on behalf of hackers to highlight larger vulnerabilities in cybersecurity protocols
AT&T, the telecommunications giant, has confirmed that it paid a hacker a whopping $370,000 to ensure wiping out customer credentials stolen earlier this year. Wired reports that AT&T negotiated through an intermediary named Reddington, who represented a member of the notorious Shinehunters hacking group.
Initially demanding $1 million, the hacker settled for a reduced amount, which AT&T paid in bitcoin on May 17th. While there are ongoing concerns regarding the circulation of possible excerpts, the hacker produced a video testifying to the deletion of the data in a bid to verify compliance. Reddington, the intermediary, while expressing confidence in the total deletion of the leaked data post-payment, also acknowledged the possibility of fragments of the data circulating in the wild. Reddington revealed negotiating comparable deals with various other companies on behalf of hackers to highlight larger vulnerabilities in cybersecurity protocols. The news follows the first breaches at Ticketmaster and Santander Bank, citing stolen credentials from an employee of cloud storage provider Snowflake. According to Wired, following the initial breach at Ticketmaster, the hackers used a script to potentially jeopardize over 160 companies simultaneously.
The development stirs serious concerns about the security measures adopted by large companies and highlights the growing threat of sophisticated cybercriminals targeting sensitive customer data. AT&T has yet to release an official statement about the incident.
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