Hackers stole detailed information of 47 million T-Mobile users
Earlier this week, a hacker claimed to have stolen the user information of up to 100 million users of the US operator T-Mobile, including much private information such as names and driver’s licenses.
Later, the media contacted the hacker and obtained a data sample, which contained the user’s name, social security number, phone number, address, IMEI, and driver’s license information.
Initially, T-Mobile stated that it could not confirm whether the data was authentic/denied that there was a data breach, but later the company confirmed that unauthorized external access did occur.
In the official press release, T-Mobile stated that the leaked user data is 47.8 million, and this data also contains some customers who are not T-Mobile.
The company said that if a user applies for an account with T-Mobile but is not approved, the personal information submitted by the user is also included in the database and therefore also leaked.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the leaked database covers the user’s real name, residential address, social security number, date of birth, and driver’s license information for some customers.
The data includes all the information of users who have used T-Mobile in the past, users who are using T-Mobile, and users who have applied for a T-Mobile account.
There is no indication that the stolen database covers financial information, including bank account information, credit cards, debit cards, and other payment information.
About 7.8 million existing T-Mobile wireless customers’ were stolen, and about 40 million were potential customers who had previously applied to T-Mobile.
In addition, about 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid user information and account PINs were leaked, as an emergency response, T-Mobile has reset customer PINs.
Although T-Mobile tried to play down the data breach with no financial information, such a large-scale data breach will inevitably lead to various potential security issues.
The Federal Communications Commission, which is responsible for the supervision of the communications industry, has also announced its involvement in the investigation. According to the past, it should be unavoidable to receive a huge fine in the end.
Via: Reuters
