A huge personal data leak is a company's worst privacy-related nightmare, and T-Mobile is potentially in the middle of its own. A hacker claims to have stolen 100 million customer records from the company, but is it all hot air or a legitimate threat?
T-Mobile's Potential Privacy Headache
As reported by Motherboard, a hacker began posting on a forum claiming that they have 100 million records of customer details ready to leak. The thing is, the hacker had not actually proven they had the records—they just said they had.
T-Mobile is investigating if the claim is true, but the hacker has since reported to Motherboard about the information they managed to get. As Motherboard reports:
The data includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information, the seller said. Motherboard has seen samples of the data, and confirmed they contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.
The hacker hasn't leaked the entire database yet, but for a good reason. They hope to sell on this data and make a pretty coin on the black market; more specifically, six Bitcoins. That totals around $270,000 at the time of writing.
Unfortunately for T-Mobile, the hacker has potentially got their hands on very sensitive data. The leak apparently contains 30 million records of social security numbers and driver's licenses, which would make this leak a huge problem for T-Mobile if it's true.
The hacker claims that, despite T-Mobile claiming that it's investigating if the breach is true or not, the company already knows that it is. They say this because, as they claim, the backdoor exploit they used to get the details in the first place has since been patched up, thus hinting that the telecommunications giant already knows it has a breach on its hands.
However, any potential damage has already been done. The hacker claims that they've got all the data they needed and also backed it up to several places, meaning that if they truly do have the data, it's going to be a tough upward battle for T-Mobile.
T-Mobile Seems to Be in T-Rouble
While the hacker may be bluffing, there's a good chance that they do, in fact, have a lot of sensitive user data harvested from T-Mobile. We'll have to see how this issue develops and if the hacker means what they say.
Unfortunately, the internet is a hotspot for identity theft. However, there are some ways you can help prevent this from happening to you.
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