An internal security breach at AT&T may have compromised the personal information of some Vermont residents.
The company notified Attorney General Bill Sorrell’s office of the breach, which occurred in August. Assistant Attorney General Ryan Krieger said Tuesday that the company has notified affected customers by mail. An undated sample letter is posted on the AG’s website.
“We recently determined that one of our employees violated our strict privacy and security guidelines by accessing your account without authorization in August 2014, and while doing so, would have been able to view and may have obtained your account information including your social security number and driver’s license number,” the letter states.
Krieger said state law bars the Attorney General from releasing more information about the breach, including the date when AT&T notified state officials.
“We can’t disclose that information that goes into preliminary notice,” Krieger said. He added that the Attorney General’s office does not issue press releases every time it receives notification of a breach.
"We’d be issuing these press releases every day,” he said. "They’re fairly frequent, unfortunately. And it would also discourage businesses from disclosing their breaches to us, if we made hay about every single one.”
A list of reported breaches and links to sample notification letters can be found on the Attorney General’s website.
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