The AT&T breach and what you can do to protect yourself moving forward

What happened?

AT&T has reported a significant data breach, impacting nearly all of its customers and including records of calls and texts from May to October 2022. The company says the breach does not include personal information like your social security number and other identifying information putting your safety at risk.

Data breaches are unfortunately a part of our world now; whenever there is a data breach, you want to know how you can protect yourself. Southern Cal Telecom wanted to do a little research for you for some tricks and tips to stay safe moving forward.

How to protect yourself

  • Try not to repeat passwords

    Try switching it up and use unique and complex passwords for each of your accounts online. Whenever it is offered, enable two-factor authentication as an additional layer of security.

  • Watch your back with phishing

    Phishing is when a scammer targets you through phone calls, text messages, or emails to try and get you to reveal personal information. Keep your personal information to yourself with never ever share over the phone. Clicking on interesting emails can also be bait to get you to give away information about yourself.

  • Monitor your credit reports closely

    You have an option you probably didn’t know about to a free credit report each week from each of the three major credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can request a free report from AnnualCreditReport.com anytime you want as well. Everyone here in the SOCAL TEL office has their credit locked- it may seem like a pain, but it’s not that much time out of your day- unlike undoing the damage from a scammer.

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At Southern Cal Telecom Inc., our professional staff can install, design, and maintain just the ideal system for your company. At our data and storage center, your data will always be safeguarded with the highest levels of security. Count on us for the right carrier service (VoIP and hosted PBX phone system), security and surveillance systems, and more!