- AT&T is set to pay out a whopping $177 million to settle lawsuits over two major data breaches
- The breaches were disclosed in 2024, but they took place in 2019 and 2024
- Claims are only open for a limited time, so if you were affected, act fast
AT&T has suffered several major data breaches in the last few years, and two of them resulted in a class action lawsuit that has now resulted in a $177 million settlement. The telecom giant has agreed to pay the sum instead of going to trial.
The settlement covers incidents disclosed in 2024, which affected tens of millions of current and former AT&T users across the United States. Under the terms of the deal, you may be able to claim up to $7,500.
You can only file your claim for a short time, though. So here’s how to find out whether you’re eligible for the payout from AT&T’s $177 million settlement and how to file a claim.
What are the data breaches covered by the settlement?
As outlined by Kroll, the risk and financial advisory firm that serves as the settlement administrator in this case, the class action lawsuit covers two separate data breaches.
The first breach occurred in 2019, but was only reported by AT&T in 2024, once the data was being sold on the dark web. This breach involved personal data of over 70 million AT&T customers, both current and former, including Social Security numbers, legal names, and birth dates. As a result of this breach, AT&T had to force-reset account passcodes for millions of customers.
The second breach hit AT&T shortly after the 2019 one was finally reported. Hackers were able to access the phone records stored in Snowflake, which is AT&T’s cloud-based data warehouse. This breach, which took place in April 2024, reportedly affected all of AT&T’s customers – around 109 million.
What are the details of the AT&T settlement?
Separate lawsuits were filed for both data breaches, but were later consolidated into a single case. All parties have agreed to a settlement in March 2025.
The official settlement website states that the “parties have settled the actions in their entirety without any admission of liability or wrongdoing.”
Although now consolidated, the settlement is still split into two tiers: AT&T 1 Settlement Class and AT&T 2 Settlement Class. The first class covers the 2019 data breach, which also included SSNs, and it will be eligible for a $149 million payout in total; the second class (the 2024 breach) will receive the remaining $28 million.
How to find out if you qualify for the AT&T settlement?
Kroll Settlement Administration should send you an email if you qualify for the settlement, so keep checking your mailbox. Make sure to also check the spam folder.
If you believe that you should qualify for either part of the settlement, but have yet to receive your email, you can reach out first.
To do so, either call at (833) 890-4930 or send an inquiry to the following address:
AT&T Data Incident Settlement
c/o Kroll Settlement Administration LLC
P.O. Box 5324
New York, NY 10150-5324
How much money can you get from the settlement?
If you were affected by the 2019 data breach and can prove a documented financial loss as a result of it, you’re eligible for up to $5,000. Those affected by the 2024 breach can qualify for up to $2,500.
It’s technically possible that you might qualify for both, but you’d most likely need to present Kroll with proof of two separate incidents.
If you can’t prove that the data breaches led to financial loss, but still qualify for the payout, you’ll receive a pro rata share of the remaining money, so it’ll depend on the number of claimants.
How to file a claim?
You can file a claim in the AT&T data breach settlement directly on the Kroll website or through the mail.
In either case, you’ll need to have your own Class Member ID in order to file a claim, which you’ll get once Kroll reaches out to you via email or otherwise.
If you’d rather not submit your claim online, you can print out the claim and mail it to the address we shared above. Here are the forms you should use depending on which claim you were affected by.
The claim has to be submitted or postmarked by December 18, 2025.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/6fCGcndXvBk6U9US7YyEcL-2000-80.jpg
Source link
monicajwrites@gmail.com (Monica J. White)