A security breach conducted by an AT&T employee has placed about 1,600 customer's private personal data at risk, the company reported on Monday, according to Reuters.
AT&T said the breach occurred in August, but the affected customers are only being informed today, Reuters reported.
The AT&T employee gained unauthorized access to the personal data, but has been removed from his position since the breach, according to Reuters.
A letter by an AT&T spokesman was posted on the Attorney General of Vermont's website on Oct. 1 stating the employee who conducted the breach "may have" obtained Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and even AT&T services the customers may have been subscribed to.
"Unfortunately, we recently learned that one of our employees did not follow our strict privacy rules and inappropriately obtained some customer information. This individual no longer works at AT&T and we are directly contacting the limited number of affected customers," an AT&T spokesman told Reuters.
In the letter posted on Vermont's attorney general's site, AT&T did not specify exactly how many customers might have been affected by the insider data breach.
"This is not the way we conduct business, and as a result, this individual no longer works for AT&T," the letter wrote.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, unique customer numbers, known as Customer Proprietary Network Information, which can include the time, date, duration, and destination number of each call made, were also viewed by the employee.
The authorities are aware of the latest data breach to occur to a major corporation, according to Reuters. The most recent cyber attack victims include Chase, Apple and Target.
