People who applied for accounts with cellular phone company, T-Mobile may have had their personal information exposed due to a T-Mobile Data Breach. The data breach reportedly involved both T-Mobile customers and people who simply applied for accounts but are not customers. People whose data was exposed may be eligible for compensation.
T-Mobile Big Data Breach
Cellular communications company, T-Mobile has acknowledged that over 50 million people may have been subject to a huge data breach. Personal and indentity information of 53 million or more individuals may have been obtained by hackers who apparently accessed the data through a “backdoor” on company servers.
Data Exposed
The company claims in communication with news outlets that “no financial information or debit card information” was exposed. Unfortunately, other information including identification data may leave victims open to identity theft.
This may also increase the chance of “SIM swapping” which occurs when someone is able to switch an individual phone number to another person’s control.
Data that may have been exposed may include:
- Names
- Drivers’ Licenses
- Government identification numbers
- Social Security numbers
- Dates of birth
- T-Mobile PIN numbers
- Phone or SIM card IMEI numbers
- Phone numbers
Exposure of this type of information may enable identity theft to be used in obtaining new credit cards and other financial accounts.
T-Mobile Response
Though T-Mobile has included a statement on their website, as a blog posting in the “news” section, the company has failed to communicate directly with potential victims. The company has not personally notified customers or non-customers whose data may have been exposed.
A forum post has been identified that claims a seller may have information related to millions of people. Tech magazine, Motherboard, claims to have seen the data and that it appears to have come from T-Mobile full customer information. The seller was reportedly asking for 6 bitcoin or approximately $270,000 in exchange for a portion of the data.
The company has reportedly closed the backdoor to the server which may have been compromised, leading to the hack. T-Mobile appears to have confirmed this by stating:
“We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed, and we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed.”
T-Mobile appears to have offered ID Theft service and other online identity and scam blocking tools and has suggested that passwords be changed, however class action lawsuits are also under consideration.
If you have been a victim of the T-Mobile Data Breach, you may be eligible for compensation.