AT&T admits to cyber attack on some customer accounts

AT&T has become the latest company that has had to deal with a cyber attack targeting online account information on its customers. Bloomberg reports that in an email that was sent to some of AT&T's wireless subscribers, it said, "We recently detected an organized and systematic attempt to obtain information on a number of AT&T customer accounts, including yours."

The letter added, "We do not believe that the perpetrators of this attack obtained access to your online account or any of the information contained in that account." AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel added that the attack affected less than one percent of AT&T's customers. He added, "No accounts were breached and our investigation is ongoing to determine the source or intent of the attempt to gather this information."

So far no group has claimed responsibility for this latest cyber attack. AT&T claims that the group or groups involved used a a type of auto script technology to find out if some AT&T telephone numbers were linked in some way with the customer's online accounts with the wireless carrier.

In 2010, hackers managed to obtain emails addresses from owners of Apple's iPad that were linked to AT&T's network. The people responsible were later discovered and arrested. At least one of them pleaded guilty in the case last June.