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Here’s How You Can Get Paid From AT&T’s $177M Data Breach Settlement

The telecom giant will pay out $177 million in relation to two recent data breaches affecting current and former customers.

Have you been an AT&T customer at some point in recent years? Bad news: Your personal information might’ve been compromised in two big data breaches. But the good news? You might be in line to get paid for it as part of a new settlement.

On Friday, June 20, US District Judge Ada Brown in Texas ruled that the terms of a settlement from AT&T were reasonable, clearing the process to move forward. The settlement as it stands will see the telecom giant pay out $177 million to customers adversely affected by at least one of the two data breaches. Some of the details about the process for getting paid aren’t available this early on, but you can expect them to become clear later in the summer, ahead of the final approval hearing on Dec. 3.

The settlement will prioritize larger payments to customers who suffered damages that are «fairly traceable» to the data leaks. It will also provide bigger payments to those impacted by the larger of the two leaks, which began in 2019. While the company is working towards a settlement, it has continued to deny that it was «responsible for these criminal acts.»

For all the details about we have about the settlement right now, keep reading, and for more info about other recent settlements, find out how to claim Apple’s Siri privacy settlement and see if you’re eligible for 23andMe’s privacy breach settlement.

What happened with these AT&T data breaches?

AT&T first confirmed the two data breaches last year, announcing an investigation into the first in March before confirming it in May, followed by confirmation of the second one in July.

The first of the confirmed breaches began in 2019. The company revealed that around 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders had their data exposed to hackers, including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The company first began investigating the situation last year after it reported that customer data had appeared on the dark web. 

The second breach began in April of 2024, when a hacker broke into AT&T cloud storage provider Snowflake and accessed 2022 call and text records for almost all of the company’s US customers, around 109 million in all. The company stressed that no names were attached to the stolen data, and two individuals were arrested in connection with the breach.

Both of these incidents sparked a wave of class action lawsuits alleging corporate neglect on the part of AT&T in failing to sufficiently protect its customers.

How will I know if I’m eligible for the AT&T data breach settlement?

As of now, we know that the settlement will pay out to any current or former AT&T customer whose data was accessed in one of these data breaches, with higher payments reserved for those who can provide documented proof that they suffered damages directly resulting from their data being stolen.

If you’re eligible, you should receive a notice about it, either by email or by a physical letter in the mail, sometime in the coming months. The company expects that the claims process will begin on Aug. 4.

How much will I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?

You’ll have to «reasonably» prove damages caused by these data breaches to be eligible for the highest and most prioritized payouts. For the 2019 breach, those claimants can receive up to $5,000. For the Snowflake breach, the max payout will be $2,500. It’s not clear at this time how the company might be handling customers who’ve been affected by both breaches.

AT&T will focus on making those payments first, and whatever’s left of the $177 million settlement total will be disbursed to anyone whose data was accessed, even without proof of damages. Since these payouts depend on how many people get the higher amounts first, we can’t say definitively how much they will be.

When will I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?

AT&T expects that payments will start to go out sometime early next year, though exact dates aren’t available right now. The final approval needs to be given at the Dec. 3 court hearing in order for payments to being made.

Stay tuned to this piece in the coming months to get all the new details as they emerge, and for more money help, check out CNET’s daily tariff price impact tracker.

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Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, June 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Wednesday, June 25.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword took me a little bit longer than usual. 1-Across took me a little time to ponder, and so did 1-Down. Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Guitar effect that mimics a voice
Answer: WAWA

5A clue: Red carpet figure, informally
Answer: CELEB

6A clue: Robert De Niro’s «You talkin’ to me?» line was one
Answer: ADLIB

7A clue: JCPenney or Family Dollar
Answer: STORE

8A clue: «Hey there!»
Answer: HOWDY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Dead set on, as an idea
Answer: WEDTO

2D clue: Permit
Answer: ALLOW

3D clue: A little bit off
Answer: WEIRD

4D clue: Home for monks
Answer: ABBEY

5D clue: Successfully win, in sports betting lingo
Answer: CASH

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Technologies

Some Tesla Robotaxis Are Reportedly Behaving Badly, and Safety Officials Want to Know What’s Up

The NHTSA says it’s aware of videos posted online purportedly showing self-driving Tesla vehicles going awry.
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Technologies

Fortnite Meets Squid Game: Here’s How to Get Free Twitch Drops, Plus New Skin Prices

Red Light! Green Light! Fortnite! The hit game is diving into the unnerving world of the massively popular Netflix series.

Squid Game, the chillingly creepy show where desperate, debt-ridden adults compete in a deadly tournament of children’s games, is returning to Netflix for its third and final season on Friday. Its brightly colored, dystopian world has heavily influenced pop culture, even including Halloween costumes. And now, the Squid Game universe is coming to the massively popular game Fortnite in a crossover event beginning at the same time that the third season is available to watch.

When does Squid Game come to Fortnite?

  • Look for a new island, Squid Grounds, in the Fortnite battle royale mode, Reload, on June 27, at 9 a.m. ET. 
  • It seems likely that the Squid Game skins and items will come to Fortnite before the new island map does. Leakers are reporting that the skins and item shop will be reset at 8 p.m. ET on the night of June 26. 
  • Squid Game-themed skins in the shop will include the red-clad guards and green-clad competitors. 
  • «You’ll recognize plenty of returning weaponry for the Squid Grounds update, though the Glider and Boogie Bomb are making their first-ever appearance in Reload,» a representative for Fortnite promises in the caption for the YouTube trailer showing off the game additions.

And on Fortnite.com, the game goes into a bit more detail. 

«Find familiar playground locations from the games, complete with staged town sets and a hollowed-out labyrinth cutting underneath the island’s rolling hills,» the site says. «You can even play Red Light, Green Light at your own risk.»

Before Friday’s launch, players can compete in the Squid Games Cup, a Reload Duos Fill tournament taking place on the Slurp Rush map on June 25. Top players can then earn the Games Guard outfit before it shows up in the shop on June 26.

How to win playing Fortnite Squid Game

Once the map is released, there’s more to come. 

  • Squid Grounds Console Cash Cups, which are Battle Royale Duos tournaments, will be available on July 18, July 25 and Aug. 1,
  • The games are open to players on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch. 
  • Top performers earn cash prizes.

How to get Free Fortnite Squid Game Twitch Drops

During the crossover’s first weekend, players who watch any channel in the Fortnite category on Twitch between June 27 at 9 a.m. ET and June 29 at 11:59 p.m. ET will receive free in-game content, based on how long they watch. 

Options include:

  • The Games Banner Icon, for 30 cumulative minutes of watching
  • The Cuddly Games Spray, for 1 hour
  • The Guarded Games Spray, for 1 hour, 30 minutes
  • The Ddakji Flip Emoticon, for 2 hours. (Ddakji is the traditional Korean paper-flipping game featured in the show.)

How much do Squid Game skins in Fortnite cost?

Squid Game game focuses on people so far in debt they must risk their lives. Some Fortnite players are joking about that similarity, because according to unconfirmed leaks first reported on by SpushFNBR and NotPaloleaks, and cited by Vice, playing could be pricey. 

  • Reportedly, the Squid Game skin main bundle will cost 3,000 V-Bucks, which is the game’s currency. Fortnite.com says that the bundle includes the Games Guard outfit, the Ddakji Defender outfit, the Green Light Guardian, Marble Maven, Dalgona Destroyer, Tug of War Titan, Pentathlon Perfector, Jegi Juggler, Flying Stone Fighter, Gong-gi Great, Games Manager outfit and Glass Bridge Survivor outfit. It looks as if the crossover won’t include one of the more iconic Squid Game characters, the eerie black-clad Front Man, a former police officer who won the tournament and now runs it.
  • According to popular Fortnite leaker HYPEX, prices even for single skins won’t be cheap, with the guard and manager skins selling for 1,500 V-Bucks each and the male and female player skins for 1,200 V-Bucks each. Maybe you can find a deadly tournament to enter to win enough … oh, wait.

But some Fortnite fans seem excited about the new additions regardless.

«The fact that we’re getting elimination-based gaming inside elimination-based gaming is peak 2025 meta,» said one X user.

Another user said they’d prefer to see Squid Game take a role in the standard battle royale Fortnite game.

«This seems like a good idea, but why is Squid Game in Reload and not the Battle Royale game mode?» they asked on X. «I don’t know a lot of people who play Reload, me including [sic]. The last time I played Reload was when the game mode first came out.»

Another person suggested this might be because the Battle Royale season theme, superheroes, doesn’t fit with Squid Game.

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