T-Mobile announced a data breach on Monday after a hacking organisation claimed to have gotten records of 100 million T-Mobile customers in the United States and sold part of the material on the dark web.
The US wireless carrier said it couldn’t say how many users were affected, but that it has started a “deep technical investigation of the situation across our systems to ascertain the nature of any illegally obtained data.”
T-Mobile initially stated that it was investigating the hacker group’s claim, but eventually admitted that at least some data had been acquired.
“We have discovered that unauthorised access to some T-Mobile data happened,” the company stated in a statement. “However, we have not yet determined whether any personal customer data was implicated.”
“We’re certain that the point of entry used to obtain access has been shut down.”
T-Mobile said it was conducting its own investigation into the incident with the help of digital forensic experts and was collaborating with law enforcement.
According to media sources citing postings on dark web sites, the enormous breach allegedly includes sensitive personal information such as social security and driver’s licence numbers.
Personal data from at least 30 million people was offered for sale on dark web forums for the equivalent of $280,000 in bitcoin, according to screenshots shared by the security website.
The hack was first reported by Vice’s Motherboard, which cited a seller who claimed to have “complete customer information” for T-Mobile customers.
The reports follow a slew of data breaches and ransomware assaults that have hit a wide range of businesses and organisations, including a US pipeline operator, Ireland’s health IT system, and an Indian airline.
In recent years, huge customer data breaches have affected more than 100 million customers at Facebook, Yahoo, and Marriott, among other US companies.
T-Mobile acquired rival telecom provider Sprint in 2019 in order to better compete with AT&T and Verizon.
