"AT&T Paid a Hacker $370,000 to Delete Stolen Phone Records"

US telecom giant AT&T, which disclosed Friday that hackers had stolen the call records for tens of millions of its customers, allegedly paid a member of the hacking team more than $300,000 to delete the data.  The hacker, who is part of the notorious ShinyHunters hacking group, tells WIRED that AT&T paid the ransom in May.  The hacker provided the address for the cryptocurrency wallet that sent the currency to him, as well as the address that received it.  WIRED confirmed, through an online blockchain tracking tool, that a payment transaction occurred on May 17 in the amount of 5.7 bitcoin.  Chris Janczewski, head of global investigations for crypto-tracing firm TRM Labs, also confirmed using the company's own tracking tool that a transaction occurred in the amount of about 5.72 bitcoin (the equivalent of $373,646 at the time of the transaction) and that the money was then laundered through several cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets, but said there was no indication of who controlled the wallets.  A security researcher who asked to be identified only by his online handle, Reddington, also confirmed that a payment occurred.  Reddington provided WIRED with proof of the fee payment.  The hacker initially demanded $1 million from AT&T but ultimately agreed to a third of that.  AT&T did not comment or respond to questions from Wired about whether it paid to have the data deleted. 

Wired reports: "AT&T Paid a Hacker $370,000 to Delete Stolen Phone Records"