Video source: YouTube, KHOU 11

T-Mobile US Inc (Nasdaq: TMUS confirmed on Monday it is investigating the extent of a data breach that hackers claim exposed personal information of more than 100 million of the mobile carrier’s customers.

Vice first reported about the hack on Sunday after a post was made in an online forum that claimed to be selling the personal data of more than 100 million T-Mobile customers. 

According to Vice, the purported seller is requesting 6 Bitcoin (about $270,000) for a subset of data containing 30 million Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses. The remainder of the stolen data — which is claimed to include names, addresses and telephone numbers — is reportedly being sold privately. 

The data was allegedly swiped from a T-Mobile server, according to Bleeping Computer, which also reported that the seller has database information “going back to 2004.”

T-Mobile said in a statement that it had "determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred" but that it was too soon to know what was stolen and how many customers might be affected.

“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,” the statement continued. 

T-Mobile, which last year completed a $26 billion merger with Sprint, cautioned that the investigation “will take some time” but that it is “working with the highest degree of urgency.” 

“Until we have completed this assessment we cannot confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others,” the company said.

T-Mobile has been the target of several other data breaches in recent years.

In January, call-related information and phone numbers for 200,000 customers may have been exposed, but the company claimed sensitive information, like names and Social Security numbers, was not revealed 

Last year, T-Mobile had two incidents. It admitted a breach on its email systems that saw hackers access some employee email accounts and customer data and a separate breach months later of one million prepaid customers’ personal and billing information. 

https://www.t-mobile.com/responsibility/consumer-info/pii-notice 

In 2018, T-Mobile said as many as two million customers may have had their personal information stolen.

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Source: Equities News

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