US telecom company AT&T reportedly gave $370,000 to a hacker to delete its stolen customer data
Before AT&T announced the breach, it was reported that Ticketmaster and Santander Bank were also compromised, via the stolen login credentials of an employee of third-party cloud storage company Snowflake
AT&T decided to hire a hacker for about $370,000 in order to delete stolen customer data that was taken during a hacking spree earlier this year, says The Verge
Video evidence that the data had been deleted was provided afterwards, says Wired.
The outlet reports that Reddington, whom AT&T paid for his part in negotiations, said he believes the only complete copy of the data had been deleted after AT&T paid the ransom, but that it's possible excerpts are still in the wild.
Reddington also reportedly said he negotiated with several other companies for the hackers, too.
Before AT&T announced the breach, it was reported that Ticketmaster and Santander Bank were also compromised, via the stolen login credentials of an employee of third-party cloud storage company Snowflake.
Wired reports that, after the Ticketmaster attack, hackers used a script to hack potentially more than 160 companies simultaneously.