Verizon Employee Data Exposed in Insider Threat Incident

Tens of thousands of workers are effected by a fellow employee dipping into files that include everything from SSNs and names to union status and compensation data.

About 63,000 Verizon employees have been affected by a breach that occurred in September 2023 but which wasnt discovered for three months.
In a notice to the Maine attorney generals office, the
telecom giant noted
that the breach was caused by an
insider threat
but that it was an inadvertent disclosure rather than a malicious one.
The exposed information includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, gender, union affiliations, dates of birth, and compensation information — basically a phishers social engineering giftbox.
[On Sept. 21], a Verizon employee obtained a file containing certain employee personal information without authorization and in violation of company policy, according to a sample letter to victims filed with the Maine attorney generals office. Promptly after learning of the issue [on Dec. 12], we conducted a review. … At this time, we have no evidence that this information has been misused or shared outside of Verizon as a result of this issue.
Verizon — which offers consumer wireless, home Internet, IT consulting, business communications, cybersecurity offerings, and much more — offered the following statement in response to Dark Readings request for more details on the breach: Verizon recently discovered that an employee inappropriately handled a file containing certain personal information about some Verizon employees. 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.
The service provider said it was reviewing its technical controls to prevent a repeat of the situation down the line, but Jim Alkove, co-founder and CEO of identity security startup Oleria and former chief trust officer at Salesforce.com, believes that its equally important to be mindful of security mindset.
Today’s news is a perfect example of unintended access and the need for both a cultural shift around access (aka less is best; and no, not every exec needs access to everything all the time) as well as a modernized approach to the tools themselves (we need to lean into autonomous tech), he said in an emailed comment.
The news comes amid ongoing
cyberattacks against telecom providers
; its also
Verizons second data breach incident
in less than a year. Last March, 7.5 million wireless customers were affected when their information cropped up for sale on the Dark Web; the provider said a third-party provider was to blame.

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Verizon Employee Data Exposed in Insider Threat Incident