T-Mobile hit again, exposing more client data
Telecoms giant T-Mobile has suffered its second data breach this year, leaving hundreds more customers fearing for their privacy.
REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
Telecoms giant T-Mobile has suffered its second data breach this year, leaving hundreds of customers fearing for their privacy it admitted that account PINs, social security numbers, full names and more may have been accessed by threat actors.
The wireless carrier made the disclosure on April 28 to authorities in Maine in the US, though only one of the 836 people whose data was exposed by the breach was based in that state.
“The information obtained for each customer varied, but may have included full name, contact information, account number and associated phone numbers, T-Mobile account PIN, social security number, government ID, date of birth, [and] balance due,” said the company in a letter sent out to victims.
Other private data that cybercriminals behind the attack could have obtained included rate plans and details such as how many telephone lines a customer has with T-Mobile, though it also insisted “no personal financial account information or call records were affected.”
It believes the breach took place between February 24 and March 30, making for a pretty dreadful first quarter for the beleaguered telecoms provider, which sustained another attack in January, albeit on a much larger scale. Prior to that it suffered other similar breaches, which to date have cost the company millions in all.
T-Mobile says it has reset affected customers’ PINs and urges them to further update this to a code of their own choosing as an extra layer of security. As compensation it has also offered two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection.
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