Current and former AT&T subscribers might soon be eligible for a payout from a $177 million settlement over two recent data breaches at the carrier.

On Friday, a US district judge in Texas gave preliminary approval to the settlement, with the goal of kicking off the process to distribute the funds before a final approval hearing on Dec. 3.

According to court documents, the settlement fund consists of $149 million to address a major data leak in 2019, which allowed cybercriminals to exploit the data for years from both former and existing subscribers. Last March, AT&T finally confirmed the breach, sparking a wave of class-action lawsuits alleging the company had failed to safeguard the data of 51 million users, including their names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

The rest of the $28 million is meant to address a second incident involving a hacker breaching AT&T’s account with cloud storage provider Snowflake in April 2024. This enabled the cybercriminal to access call and text records for nearly all customers. Another round of class-action lawsuits followed, alleging corporate neglect. However, AT&T said no customer names were included in the stolen information. Law enforcement also arrested the two alleged hackers involved in the breach.

In a statement, AT&T said: “While we deny the allegations in these lawsuits that we were responsible for these criminal acts, we have agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation. We remain committed to protecting our customers' data and ensuring their continued trust in us.” The carrier also expects the settlement will receive approval by the end of this year.

If you’re eligible for a payout, the settlement’s administrator will contact you via email or physical letter this summer. A court document says the settlement program will officially kick off on Aug. 4.

The payout will then be sent out early next year, pending the judge granting final approval. The amount of money offered partly depends on the number of affected users who submit a claim and the degree of personal data exposed in the hacks. Users who submit documentation that they suffered losses from either breach can also receive more, up to $5,000 for the 2019 incident and up to $2,500 for the Snowflake-related hack.

By: DocMemory
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