Alabama residents raise privacy concerns after AT&T data breach

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WIAT) – The AT&T hack is causing concern among some people who are wondering how much trust they can have in the protection of their data.

Many people CBS 42 spoke to agree that it is troubling when a data breach occurs, since most of our private information is stored on our devices.

“As we increasingly live in a world where our data has to be something important to us and we have to be able to record ourselves online, it is becoming a growing problem that people have access to it that we don’t want,” said Birmingham resident Cameron Tyler.

Some people in the Birmingham area say they were not surprised to hear about the hacking of a phone company.

“I’d like to get rid of my phone,” said Tuscaloosa resident Yaseen Muthanm. “You can text one person at a time to keep your privacy, or you can talk to that person, which is better, but with texting you have that privacy. But if it goes out and gets leaked, like they said with the AT&T hack, that’s not a good picture.”

According to UAB’s Center for Cyber ​​​​Security, data breaches and hacking attacks like the one AT&T experienced are becoming more common.

“In the past, criminals didn’t care much about computers or hacking different systems,” says Ragib Hasan, director of the Center for Cyber ​​​​Security. “Thirty years ago, only bored teenagers did that. But today, organized crime has figured out that there is money to be made from such break-ins.”

AT&T said it does not currently offer any additional protection services, but warned customers to be cautious of email or text messages asking for personal, account or credit card information.