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Hackers Stole Personal Data of 2 Million T-Mobile Customers (vice.com) 56

On late Thursday, T-Mobile revealed that hackers stole some of the personal data of 2 million people in a new data breach. From a report: In a brief intrusion, hackers stole "some" customer data including names, email addresses, account numbers, and other billing information. The good news is that they did not get credit card numbers, social security numbers, or passwords, according to the company. In its announcement, T-Mobile said that its cybersecurity team detected an "unauthorized capture of some information" on Monday, Aug. 20. A company spokesperson told me that the breach affected "about" or "slightly less than" 3% of its 77 million customers.
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Hackers Stole Personal Data of 2 Million T-Mobile Customers

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  • by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Friday August 24, 2018 @09:46AM (#57186308)

    Or is it "reckless company did not protect the data of millions"?

    About time the blame is shared, no?

    • Yes.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      About time the blame is shared, no?

      It is time, but I fear that many lawmakers (especially in the US) will never do anything which makes corporations actually liable for such things.

      Maybe do the Yakuza thing with the CIO ... you get hacked, you lose a digit. Never hire a CIO missing a digit.

      Far too many companies have far too lax security,and it really is time to make them bear the responsibility for it.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Catherine Zeta-Jones would say that this is, wait for it, wait for it...

      Entrapment.

      I'll show myself out now.

    • Its just as illegal to leave your car unattended with the keys in it, as it is to be the one stealing it. How is leaving customer data unprotected any less criminally negligent? Its past time to have the FBI publicly walk these CIO's out to the van in handcuffs. Security would miraculously be fixed almost overnight.
  • Since they have my account number and billing information, maybe they will pay my bill.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    "Hackers Stole Personal Data of 2 Million T-Mobile Customers "

    *checks servers*

    I'm happy to report the data has been located, and returned to it's owners.

  • by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Friday August 24, 2018 @09:54AM (#57186374) Journal

    "some" customer data including names, email addresses, account numbers, and other billing information.

    Maybe I'm just jaded, but judging by the catalogs I got in the mail, shoe companies (for example) that I'd never shopped at had at least this much information about me. In the nineties.

    (OK, in all seriousness, yeah, possible social engineering attacks and all that. Though I must point out, even I don't know my account number ... )

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The good news is that they did not get credit card numbers, social security numbers, or passwords, according to the company

    Way to spin a disaster... oh yeah, we got hacked... but they didn't get your Credit Card Number... BUT GOOD NEWS EVERYONE they just everything they need to know to sign you up for fake Credit Cards and otherwise fake your identity.

    • The good news is that they did not get credit card numbers, social security numbers, or passwords, according to the company

      Way to spin a disaster... oh yeah, we got hacked... but they didn't get your Credit Card Number... BUT GOOD NEWS EVERYONE they just everything they need to know to sign you up for fake Credit Cards and otherwise fake your identity.

      Not to defend them, but is there anyone on earth who doesn't know your name and address? Even junk mailers do.

    • Are you saying you don't need a social security number to get a credit card?

  • I mean, they only stored their passwords in plaintext, who could have seen this kind of data breach coming? Their security "was amazingly good" after all! https://twitter.com/tmobileat/... [twitter.com]
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24, 2018 @10:16AM (#57186490)

    I know its not in good taste to actually read the article, but...

    The headline should read "T-Mobile in a break from most large corporation intrusions almost immediately detects and prevents breach in it's early stages protecting 97% of its customer data"

    T-Mobile caught the hack the SAME DAY and stopped it at 3%. Then publically reported it 4 days later rather than waiting for their executive board to cash out. Unless more information comes out to the contrary this should be held up as an example of success where a large company finally mostly protects their/your data and honestly reports details quickly.

    • this should be held up as an example of success where a large company finally mostly protects their/your data and honestly reports details quickly.

      That's a pretty low bar for "success". I personally would reserve the word success for companies that have adequate security measures to prevent customer data from being improperly accessed. If any exist.

      • You have to judge things based on the current bar. They stopped a hack and reported it. The only thing the hackers got was public information

      • I don't know the details of the hack; whether it was the result of incompetence or just a 'shit happens' situation. But as long as humans are involved, I doubt there will ever be a usable commercial network that can't be hacked. I agree with giving T-Mob credit for their response.

        OTOH, I wonder how Experian, a company that has every consumer by the balls, can stay in business after the kind of breach that they had.

    • I agree, too often it's just covered up and everyone runs around like a headless chicken..
  • But now at least I’m a 3%-er... I got a text from T-Mobile last night, saying my info got stolen.

    Wanna lay odds that “3%” will be trending strongly upward over the next few days and weeks, and that they’ll eventually have to announce that the intruders got more of each customers’ info than originally thought?

  • I got an SMS text alert saying the SIM card of one of my phone has been changed and it provided a link to click if that was not correct.

    The from address was spoofed and it appeared exactly as if it came from T Mobile. In fact the t-mobile phone displayed that message along with other legitimate text alerts from T-Mobile.

    I knew enough not to click on the link provided, and called T-Mobile. It was not a legitimate message. But they hackers were able to spoof the from address in the SMS. It happened yeste

  • If not then where's the "news"?

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