Company notified 220 affected Dallas customers; supported law enforcement investigation leading to federal charge and guilty plea
January 22, 2021 – Update on Incident
We are grateful to the Dallas FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for holding Telesforo Aviles responsible for a federal crime.
October 23, 2020 – Former ADT Employee Criminally Charged and Held Responsible for a Federal Crime
It was reported today that Telesforo Aviles was criminally charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with a federal crime that will require prison time. Aviles, the former ADT employee who gained unauthorized access to the ADT accounts of 220 customers in the Dallas area, has pled guilty, according to court documents filed this week.
In April 2020, ADT terminated Aviles and reported him to law enforcement. Since that time, the company has been actively assisting law enforcement, including the FBI, in their investigation to help bring justice to Aviles’ victims. We are grateful to the Dallas FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for holding Aviles responsible for a federal crime.
May 15, 2020 - ADT asks court to help some affected customers through arbitration
In April, ADT self-reported that a former employee gained unauthorized access to the ADT accounts of 220 customers in the Dallas area. In the time since we shared that news, we have individually contacted each customer to discuss their needs and concerns to help make this right. We have already worked with many of them to resolve their concerns successfully.
On May 14, 2020, ADT asked a court to utilize arbitration to help the remaining customers who were affected by this former employee to quickly resolve their outstanding issues. This administrative legal step will allow customers to take advantage of an existing avenue to resolve any outstanding issues by working with an independent, third-party arbiter.
We deeply regret this incident and remain committed to working with law enforcement to support them in whatever they need to help bring justice to the victims of this former employee.
Published on April 23, 2020
Recently, a customer called to let us know there was an unauthorized email on their ADT account. The security and privacy of our customers is our top priority, and we immediately began an internal investigation. Unfortunately, our investigation revealed that during a service visit, one of our Dallas-area technicians had added his personal email address to this customer’s account to gain unauthorized access, and he had done the same thing during service visits with other customers in the Dallas area.
As soon as we discovered this, the unauthorized access was revoked, and the employee was terminated. We also reported him to law enforcement. We’re committed to working with law enforcement to support them in whatever they need to help bring justice to the victims of this former employee.
Our customers trust ADT with their safety and protection. We understand that this incident jeopardizes that trust and is entirely unacceptable. We will make extraordinary efforts to earn back that trust.
Our investigation is ongoing; we will continue to review all our customer accounts until we can be sure no one else’s privacy is at risk. In addition, we’ve already implemented technical and procedural solutions to help keep this abuse of access from ever happening again. This also has caused us to review all of our processes, technical systems and hiring practices to strengthen our account security and customer privacy even more, and we’ve engaged third-party experts to assist in that review.
This incident does not reflect the values of our brand nor the thousands of men and women at ADT who have dedicated their careers to helping protect others.
We contacted the 220 Dallas-area customers we know were affected by this, and we’re using all the resources at our disposal to help ensure their safety, provide peace of mind and attempt to address all the concerns they may have.
We apologize to the customers affected by the actions of this former employee and deeply regret this incident. The ADT mission is to help protect and connect people with the things they love most. Fully earning this trust back may take time, but nothing is more important to us and to those who have served our customers under the ADT banner for the last 145 years.