Verizon Communications, one of the largest telecommunications and mass media companies in the United States, has revealed that an internal data breach has affected almost half of its workforce, exposing sensitive employee information. The breach was discovered on December 12, 2023, nearly three months after an employee gained unauthorized access to a file containing the information.
The exposed data includes personal information such as full names, physical addresses, Social Security numbers, national IDs, gender, union affiliation, date of birth, and compensation details of 63,206 employees. Verizon has confirmed that customer information does not appear to have been impacted by the breach.
The company is actively working to enhance its internal security measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. While there is currently no evidence of the data being maliciously exploited or widely leaked, Verizon has taken steps to protect the affected employees. Instructions on enrolling in a two-year identity theft protection and credit monitoring service have been included in the notices sent to impacted employees.
In a statement to BleepingComputer, a Verizon spokesman stated, “At this point, we have no reason to believe the information was improperly used or that it was shared outside of Verizon. We are notifying the affected employees and applicable regulators about the matter. Our internal review of this matter continues. We have not referred this incident to law enforcement. There is no indication of malicious intent nor do we believe the information was shared externally.”
This incident marks a rare cybersecurity breach for Verizon, who has experienced relatively few cybersecurity incidents in recent years. The last major incident was reported in October 2022 when hackers attempted to perform SIM swaps to hijack customer accounts. While Verizon was able to block the activity and reverse unauthorized changes, sensitive customer information was exposed.
The company is taking the necessary steps to address the current data breach and ensure the security of its employees and customers in the future.
