ATT

AT&T’s Snowflake Ransom Payment: The $370K Precedent

Post author:Prabhu Kalyan Samal
Post published: September 3, 2026
Post category:Cloud & Infrastructure Ransomware & Malware Security

On July 31, 2024, AT&T confirmed its customer data — including call and text metadata of nearly all subscribers and some SSNs — had been stolen off Snowflake’s cloud via compromised service-account credentials, and that it had paid roughly $370,000 to the SQlMap-scanning crew known as ShinyHunters to delete it. This account reconstructs the credential theft, the infostealer-to-Snowflake kill chain, the economics of a mid-six-figure ransom, and the quarterly-burial of accountability between carrier, and its data-warehouse vendor.

AT&T 73M Leak: The 2019 Dataset That Resurfaced Free

Post author:Prabhu Kalyan Samal
Post published: September 3, 2026
Post category:Identity & Phishing Security

March 2024’s 73-million-record AT&T leak was an old wound reopened: a 2019-era vendor-workspace dataset, shopped unsuccessfully in 2021, finally dumped free on a hacking forum with SSNs and account details intact. This account disentangles it from the concurrent Snowflake campaign, explains why free publication maximizes criminal utility, maps the 7.6 million passcode resets, and follows the extortion thread that later surfaced in DOJ filings.

App Tracking Transparency: Apple’s Consent Earthquake, Five Years On

Post author:Prabhu Kalyan Samal
Post published: September 3, 2026
Post category:Emerging Tech & Architecture Identity & Phishing Security

ATT turned iOS advertising identifiers opt-in overnight, denial rates hit 80%+, and Meta booked a $10B impact. How one consent dialog restructured an ad economy — and pushed tracking into fingerprinting’s arms.