SAN ANTONIO, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T Services, Inc. ("AT&T") today expanded its pursuit of illegal data brokers to California, while a federal court in Texas has signed an Order for the expedited use of subpoenas to identify suspected perpetrators.

In a move designed to protect the privacy of its customers, AT&T is seeking to identify and pursue data brokers and other perpetrators who have accessed customer information without authorization from the company or the customer. Last month, AT&T filed suit in the San Antonio Division of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas as its initial step to identify the perpetrators involved with accessing up to 2,500 accounts. The suit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California targets some two dozen additional perpetrators involved with those same accounts.

The parallel suits focus on records housed on computer servers in the respective states and provide the company with the legal process to use e-mail addresses and Internet Protocol addresses to identify the perpetrators and pursue an injunction to bar such activity, as well as seek damages.

"We will use every means available to vigorously pursue these individuals who, through fraud, have attempted to obtain unauthorized access to customer information," said Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer for AT&T.

In some cases, individuals or data brokers use unauthorized access to telephone records, often to collect information for use in legal or domestic disputes. In a process known as "pretexting," data brokers pose as the customer to gain confidential information. The perpetrators set up unauthorized online accounts by supplying private customer-identifying information. The online account provides access to the customer's AT&T account information -- including recent calling history. The account information does not include other sensitive information such as Social Security, driver's license or credit card information.

AT&T Granted Expedited Status to Use Subpoenas

Meanwhile, in the Texas case the Court has given AT&T expedited authority to use subpoenas to pursue the identities of the unidentified perpetrators. U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia authorized the company to proceed with subpoenas to be issued to Internet Service Providers.

Once the perpetrators are identified, the company can proceed with its complaint to pursue an injunction to bar the unauthorized activity and to seek damages.

Note: This AT&T release and other news announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss .

CONTACT: Walt Sharp, AT&T Services, Inc., +1-210-351-3349, or
walt.sharp@att.com

Web site: http://www.att.com/rss