According to a recent post on AT&T’s Newsroom blog, AT&T revealed that the company fell victim to a hacking attempt, with the hackers getting access to customer data.

The post on the “Newsroom” blog, dated July 12, 2024, reads, in-part:

Based on our investigation, the compromised data includes files containing AT&T records of calls and texts of nearly all of AT&T’s cellular customers, customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) using AT&T’s wireless network, as well as AT&T’s landline customers who interacted with those cellular numbers between May 1, 2022 – October 31, 2022. The compromised data also includes records from January 2, 2023, for a very small number of customers. The records identify the telephone numbers an AT&T or MVNO cellular number interacted with during these periods. For a subset of records, one or more cell site identification number(s) associated with the interactions are also included.

The data does not contain the content of calls or texts, personal information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information. It also does not include some typical information you see in your usage details, such as the time stamp of calls or texts. While the data does not include customer names, there are often ways, using publicly available online tools, to find the name associated with a specific telephone number.

At this time, we do not believe that the data is publicly available.

The good news is that the data does not contain any sensitive information like Social Security Numbers and what not, nor does it contain the actual contents of calls or text messages. As well, AT&T doesn’t believe that the customer data has been made publicly available, which hopefully continues to remain the case.

Apple and Google, both members of the Data Transfer Initiative, recently announced a new tool that enables users to easily transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud.

The announcement, posted on the Data Transfer Initiative’s blog, reads in-part:

Beginning today, Apple and Google are expanding on their direct data transfer offerings to allow users of Google Photos to transfer their collections directly to iCloud Photos. This complements and completes the existing transfers that were first made possible from iCloud Photos to Google Photos and fulfills a core Data Transfer Initiative (DTI) principle of reciprocity. The offering from Apple and Google will be rolling out over the next week and is the newest tool powered by the open source Data Transfer Project (DTP) technology stack, joining existing direct portability tools available to billions of people today offered by DTI and its founding partners Apple, Google, and Meta.

This is definitely a useful feature for those who may want to have copies of their photos spread across multiple services, as well as for those who are looking to completely switch from one service to another.