Data of 37 million T-Mobile customers at risk due to data breach

T-Mobile has revealed in a statement that its customers’ data could be at risk again, as the company has suffered a breach of its network. 

Up to 37 million customers could be affected by the breach, in which the hackers reportedly gained access to personal information, like names, email addresses, phone numbers, billing addresses, T-Mobile account numbers, dates of birth, and other data. 

The company said that key financial data, including credit card details, government ID numbers, and social security numbers weren’t exposed, and neither were PINs and account passwords.

This follows another data breach in 2021, for which the company paid $350 million in September 2021 in a settlement to the affected customers. The breach in 2021 meant that 54 million customers had their data exposed to hackers. 

For this latest case, T-Mobie said that the breach took place in November 2022. In the regulatory filing, the company said it expects to pay out more money to settle the case. 

The breach, like previous breaches, could be a privacy risk for the affected users as the information could be sold, which poses a risk of identity theft and other types of fraud. 

In its statement, T-Mobile said: “Protecting our customers’ data remains a top priority. We will continue to make substantial investments to strengthen our cybersecurity program.”

U.S. PIRG’s consumer watchdog Teresa Murray said: “It’s been 15 years since the first huge corporate data breach, which compromised 100 million payment records with Heartland Payment Systems. After all this time, companies still haven’t figured out how to take care of their customers. It’s infuriating.”

“By now, we should all assume that much of our data is in the hands of scammers and take precautions such as freezing our credit files, We’ve seen so many massive breaches over the years at retailers such as Target and Home Depot, digital companies including Facebook, financial firms such as JPMorgan Chase, and perhaps the most infamous, Equifax.”