Frontier Communications says cyber attack impacted over 750,000 customers

American telecommunications company Frontier Communications said that a major cyber attack it suffered in April affected more than 750,000 individuals.

 

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Frontier Communications said that on April 14, it identified unauthorised access to its internal network and immediately launched an investigation and engaged third party cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

It also “initiated its previously established cyber incident response protocols and took measures to contain the incident.”

 

“As part of this process, the containment measures, which included shutting down certain of the Company’s systems, resulted in an operational disruption that could be considered material,” the telecom company said in its SEC filing.

 

In a filing with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, Frontier said that the threat actor, who breached its systems, also exfiltrated sensitive personal information, including names and other personal identifiers along with Social Security Numbers, of 751,895 individuals.

 

“We take this incident and the security of information in our care seriously. Upon discovering the incident, Frontier retained leading cybersecurity experts to support the investigation and contain the incident.

 

“We also took steps to further strengthen our network security and prevent further access by the third party. We have notified law enforcement and applicable regulatory authorities,” the filing reads.

 

Frontier has offered one year of complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services through Kroll to all affected individuals.

 

On June 1, the RansomHub hacker group claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Frontier Communications and listed it as a victim on its data leak site on the Dark Web. The group claims to be in possession of 5 gigabytes of data stolen from the company and threatened to leak the files in around 9 days if its ransom demands aren’t met.