• Hackers selling the stolen data claim it potentially impacts around 100 million users.
• The compromised data consists of customer’s names, addresses, driver licenses, and social security numbers.

With an increasing number of organizations facing cyberattacks, American wireless network operator T-Mobile USA Inc. has found itself grappled with yet another data breach.

The mobile service provider is looking into a data breach that has possibly compromised the personal information of over 100 million customers. The culprit appears to be attempting to sell off a chunk of the data that includes customer’s names, addresses, driver licenses, and social security numbers.

A T-Mobile spokesperson mentioned that they are aware of the claims made in an underground forum and have been aggressively evaluating their legitimacy. They do not have any other information to share at the moment.

The exact details about the data access are unclear, but T-Mobile has been the victim of multiple data breaches in recent years, prior to the latest occurred in December 2020. Some of its customer call-related information and phone numbers are said to be leaked during that event, though the business claimed that it did not contain sensitive information like social security numbers or names.

Hackers had previously gained access to the personal data of nearly 2 million T-Mobile users, including names, addresses, and account numbers, in a 2018 data theft. Further, in 2019, a breach accessed addresses, names, and account numbers for some of the firm’s prepaid subscribers.

Also, T-Mobile users' financial information, social security numbers, and other account information were exposed in a March 2020 hack.

Sources close to the matter stated that the hacker, in an online forum, demanded 6 bitcoins (around USD 270,000) for a section of the data comprising 30 million driver licenses and social security numbers while the remaining data is being sold privately.

Source Credit –

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/15/22626270/t-mobile-investigating-report-customer-data-breach