US Judge Approves $177M AT&T Data Breach Settlement

AT&T has reached a $177 million settlement to resolve class-action lawsuits stemming from multiple data breaches in 2024 that exposed personal information of tens of millions of customers. U.S. District Judge Ada Brown preliminarily approved the settlement, deeming it fair and reasonable. The breaches included unauthorized downloads of approximately 109 million customer accounts, involving call and text log data stored on AT&T’s Snowflake cloud platform. Affected customers may receive up to $5,000 for documented losses linked to the incidents, with remaining funds distributed to those whose information was accessed. The breaches prompted investigations by the Federal Communications Commission and resulted in previous penalties, including a $13 million FCC fine related to a 2023 breach. The settlement aims to address the extensive impact of these breaches and the growing threat of digital security vulnerabilities.