Show-Me State Times

U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the Ranking Member and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, respectively, have issued letters to AT&T and data cloud company Snowflake, Inc., seeking explanations for a recent data breach that compromised millions of subscribers' cellphone information.

"Taken together, the stolen information can easily provide cybercriminals, spies, and stalkers a logbook of the communications and activities of AT&T customers over several months, including where those customers live and traveled—a stunning and dangerous breach of its customers’ privacy and intrusion into their personal lives," the Senators wrote.

"Disturbingly, the AT&T breach appears to have been easily preventable," they continued. "While Snowflake, AT&T, and other clients have avoided taking direct responsibility, according to Mandiant, it appears that the cybercrime group behind the breaches obtained companies’ passwords from malware infections, including malware bundled with pirated software."

The Senators also raised concerns over a series of recent data hacks targeting other major Snowflake customers such as Ticketmaster, Advance Auto Parts, and Santander Bank.

Read the Senators’ letter to AT&T here.

Read the Senators’ letter to Snowflake, Inc. here.