Over 110 million AT&T customers had their personal information stolen in two high-profile data breaches during 2019 and 2024. The cybersecurity incidents exposed sensitive data, prompting consumers to seek compensation through a class action lawsuit.
The lawsuit (PDF) alleges that AT&T did not do enough to protect customer data or notify them immediately of the data breaches. While the company did not admit wrongdoing, it agreed to pay $177 million in restitution to the settlement class.
The deadline to file a claim was last December, but these settlement transactions take a long time to process. Funds must be allocated to cover administrative and legal costs. The information must also be distributed to as many eligible settlement class members as possible.
More than 4.9 million eligible customers have filed a claim, and you could be one of them.
Although AT&T can appeal the court’s decision until Nov. 2, if no appeal is filed, the court has 10 days to issue final approval of the settlement. The payouts would then be issued electronically or by mail within 60 days of that final approval (PDF), meaning claimants could potentially receive their settlement money as early as 2027.
How much money can you expect from the AT&T settlement?
If you’ve filed a valid claim as part of the AT&T data breach settlement and provided documentation of financial losses, you may be eligible to receive up to $7,500, depending on the settlement class you’re in (PDF). Here’s how it breaks down.
- 2019 Breach: As part of the AT&T 1 Data Incident settlement class, anyone whose Social Security number was stolen and who can prove they suffered financial losses from the hack is eligible for up to a $5,000 check.
- 2024 breach: As part of the AT&T 2 Data Incident settlement class, anyone who has proven that they suffered financial losses in relation to this hack is eligible for up to a $2,500 check.
- Customers who can prove they were affected by the AT&T 1 and AT&T 2 breaches are eligible for up to a $7,500 check, provided they have documentation for both breaches.
However, the vast majority of eligible claimants – more than 3.7 million – who did not include documentation of losses with their claim forms will receive drastically lower payouts in what is called a tiered distribution system. The tiered cash payments are well below the settlement’s announced maximum, ranging from $6.50 to $40. These claims are paid out “pro rata”, which means that the money is distributed evenly based on what remains in the total payment balance.
All payout amounts are estimates and not guaranteed.
If you have filed a claim and would like more information or updates, you can contact the settlement administrator at telecomdatasettlement.com or by calling 833-890-4930.
What happened during the 2019 and 2024 data breaches?
AT&T suffered two major data breaches in 2019 and 2024, with customers’ personal information appearing on the dark web following the latter incident. The company did not publicly acknowledge the hack for several weeks after the leaked data began to spread online.
The 2019 hack affected 65.4 million former customers and 7.6 million active account holders, exposing extremely sensitive information including social security numbers, dates of birth and full legal names. The leaked information was important and broad enough that AT&T took the drastic measure of resetting the passwords of every affected customer.
The 2024 breach was broader in scope, affecting nearly 109 million wireless customers, but the information was not as sensitive. During this hack, call and text records, timestamps and cell tower location data that AT&T had saved from 2022 were illegally accessed.
(Since nearly all 73 million people from the first breach were also part of the broader 110 million pool in the second breach, the total number of affected customers is limited to about 110 million.)
Hackers from the UNC5537 group claimed responsibility for the 2024 breach, part of a larger hacking spree targeting the Snowflake databases of more than 160 companies. UNC5537 is a close affiliate of ShinyHunters, a notorious hacker group that often targets companies with large stores of customer information. Two people were arrested in connection with the case.
While the exploits used in 2024 have been thoroughly documented and patched, hackers continue to target Snowflake servers through third-party partners, as seen in the recent Rockstar server hack.
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