Good news for South Africans who use Fidelity ADT security
Fidelity ADT’s head of group marketing and communications, Charnel Hattingh, has confirmed the company and its customers were not impacted by the ADT data breach that occurred in April 2026.
She said the breach had nothing to do with Fidelity ADT in South Africa, meaning its customers’ sensitive data remained secure.
The clarification comes after home and business security giant ADT confirmed the ShinyHunters extortion group had breached its systems in a statement published on 24 April 2026.
“ADT’s cybersecurity systems detected unauthorised access to a limited set of customer and prospective customer data on 20 April,” it said.
“The company’s response protocols activated immediately — terminating the intrusion, launching a forensic investigation with leading third-party experts, and notifying law enforcement.”
Its investigation confirmed that exposed customer information included names, phone numbers, and addresses.
In a small number of cases, dates of birth and the last four digits of U.S. Social Security Numbers and tax IDs were also leaked.
“Critically, no payment information — including bank accounts or credit cards — was accessed, and customer security systems were not affected or compromised in any way,” ADT said.
The security giant said its protocols performed as designed, identifying the breach quickly, containing the threat, and limiting the breach’s scope.
“ADT has directly notified all impacted individuals and will offer complimentary identity protection services as appropriate,” it said.
ADT issued its statement after ShinyHunters listed the ADT breach on its website and claimed to have stolen 10 million records containing customers’ personal information.
“Over 10 million records containing personally identifiable information and other internal corporate data have been compromised. Pay or leak,” the website reads.
“This is a final warning to reach out by 27 April 2026 before we leak, along with several annoying problems that’ll come your way.”
ShinyHunters told Bleeping Computer they breached ADT through a voice phishing attack that compromised an employee’s Okta single sign-on (SSO) account.
With the account, the threat actors claimed to have accessed and exfiltrated data from ADT’s Salesforce instance.
No South African customers impacted
While ADT primarily operates in the U.S., it also operates in a broader, multinational context through international partnerships, such as through Fidelity ADT in South Africa.
In response to MyBroadband, Fidelity ADT confirmed that the breach did not affect any of its systems or customer data.
ADT has been a security powerhouse in South Africa since around 2001, when it was owned by Tyco International, which pushed aggressively into the local market.
Tyco International acquired established local players, including the Sentry Group. This acquisition saw the Sentry “knight” logo phased out in favour of the blue-and-white ADT octagon.
Fidelity Services Group acquired ADT’s South African business from Tyco International for approximately R1.9 billion ($140 million at the time) in August 2016.
The deal was officially concluded in March 2017 and saw Fidelity absorb ADT’s approximately 365,000 clients across South Africa, along with its fleet of vehicles, and thousands of employees.
The merged company was renamed Fidelity ADT to reflect the combined scale of the two businesses and the adoption of ADT’s technology in Fidelity’s services.
A catalyst for the deal was the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) Amendment Bill, which sought to limit foreign ownership in local security firms to 49%.
By selling a majority stake to Fidelity, Tyco International bypassed this regulatory hurdle and exited the South African operational market.
Since the deal, Fidelity ADT has evolved from a traditional patrol-and-response provider to a technology-driven integrated services provider serving thousands of homes and businesses in South Africa.
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