T-Mobile says hack captured data of 37 million customers

Boston — The U.S. wi-fi provider T-Cellular mentioned Thursday that an unidentified malicious intruder breached its community in late November and stole information on 37 million prospects, together with addresses, telephone numbers and dates of beginning.

T-Cellular mentioned in a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee that the breach was found Jan. 5. It mentioned the information uncovered to theft – primarily based on its investigation so far – did not embody passwords or PINs, checking account or bank card data, Social Safety numbers or different authorities IDs.

“Our investigation continues to be ongoing, however the malicious exercise seems to be totally contained right now,” T-Cellular mentioned, including that the information was first accessed on or round Nov. 25.

T-Cellular mentioned it has notified legislation enforcement and federal companies it did not identify.

It did not instantly reply to an e-mail looking for remark.

The corporate has been hacked a number of occasions in recent times. In its submitting, T-Cellular mentioned it did not anticipate the newest breach to have materials influence on its operations.

However a senior analyst for Moody’s Traders Service, Neil Mack, mentioned in an announcement that the breach raises questions on administration’s cyber governance and will alienate prospects and entice scrutiny by the Federal Communications Fee and different regulators.

“Whereas these cybersecurity breaches is probably not systemic in nature, their frequency of prevalence at T-Cellular is an alarming outlier relative to telecom friends,” Mack mentioned.

In July, T-Cellular agreed to pay $350 million to prospects who filed a category motion lawsuit after the corporate disclosed in August 2021 that private information together with Social Safety numbers and driver’s license data had been stolen. Almost 80 million U.S. residents had been affected.

It additionally mentioned on the time that it will spend $150 million by way of 2023 to fortify its information safety and different applied sciences.

Previous to the August 2021 intrusion, the corporate disclosed breaches in January 2021, November 2019 and August 2018 by which buyer data was accessed.

T-Cellular, primarily based in Bellevue, Washington, turned one of many nation’s largest cellphone service carriers in 2020 after shopping for rival Dash. It reported having greater than 102 million prospects after the merger.