T-Mobile ups number of data-breach victims to 54 million

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T-Mobile ups number of data-breach victims to 54 meg

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T-Mobile has upped its estimates of how many people were affected past its more recent information breach, adding some other six million accounts for a new total of 54 meg in an updated blog post today (Aug. 20).

If there's whatever silver lining, none of these new 6 million people had their Social Security numbers stolen, although about did have their names, dates of nativity and telephone numbers compromised. Those individuals are at slightly lower run a risk of identity theft than the 48 million whose SSNs and driver'due south licenses were pilfered.

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• Plus: AT&T denies 70 million user records were stolen from its servers

The less-good news is that about 13 1000000 electric current T-Mobile customers did indeed have their phone numbers compromised, along with their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which place handsets, and their International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, which identify SIM cards.

Anybody affected by this breach is eligible for two free years of McAfee ID Theft Protection, paid for past T-Mobile. At the moment, pretty much anyone tin can sign upwards to attempt to get that deal, whether yous've always been associated with T-Mobile or not, though there's no guarantee you'll actually qualify.

Meanwhile, the lawsuits take begun. Vice Motherboard reports that a form-activeness complaint was filed yesterday (Aug. xix) in federal courtroom in Washington land on behalf of four individuals said to be hurt by the T-Mobile data alienation. The lawsuit does not specify an amount for an award only does demand a jury trial.

What you need to do

If you've e'er had a T-Mobile business relationship, or fifty-fifty just applied for one, you lot should accept upwards the company on its offer of the costless identity monitoring. That's true even if yous already have identity theft protection coverage every bit the result of another data breach or that you pay for yourself.

You too need to change the password and Pin on your T-Mobile account. T-Mo says that only about 900,000 prepaid customers (including, every bit of today, 52,000 Metro by T-Mobile users) had their PINs and passwords compromised, and that information technology has already reset the PINs for those customers.

Perhaps as a effect, it has as well contradistinct the official T-Mobile information breach response folio to remove the links to reset your T-Mobile Pivot and reset your T-Mobile password, although those pages are however up.

If you're amidst the 48 million people whose names, addresses, dates of birth and SSNs were stolen, or among the six million who had all that stolen except the addresses and SSN, contact one of the Big Three credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to accept fraud alerts placed on your credit files.

The bureau you contact will notify the other two. Here'due south how to get the fraud alert started.

Y'all should as well consider instituting a credit freeze with each of the Large Three. You lot'll have to contact each ane individually, but here'south how. Credit freezes can complicate efforts to get a loan or open a new payment account, only you tin temporarily "unfreeze" your files for a day or ii if necessary.

Who's affected by the T-Mobile data breach and how

Keeping rails of all the dissimilar groups of people affected by this T-Mobile breach isn't easy, merely here's our latest best endeavour.

• 7.8 million current T-Mobile customers who have postpaid accounts, the kind for which you get a neb in the mail. Many or most of these people take had their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, information from driver's licenses or other forms of ID, phone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs compromised. Street addresses should also be considered compromised because those are on the driver's licenses. These individuals are at loftier gamble of identity theft.
• twoscore million former T-Mobile postpaid customers and persons who applied for T-Mobile postpaid accounts. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and commuter's licenses or other forms of ID compromised. Street addresses should likewise be considered compromised. These people are also at loftier risk of identity theft.
• 5.3 1000000 current T-Mobile customers with postpaid accounts. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs compromised, but NOT their Social Security numbers or driver's licenses. (Some addresses don't seem to be tied to commuter's licenses.) These people are at medium risk of identity theft — the absence of the Social Security numbers lowers the stakes a chip.
• 667,000 former T-Mobile postpaid customers. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers compromised, but NOT their Social Security numbers or commuter's licenses. These people are at medium risk of identity theft.
• 850,000 electric current T-Mobile customers with prepaid/pay-as-you-go customers. These people had their names, phone numbers and account PINs exposed. T-Mobile says it has reset the PINs for all those accounts. These people are at low risk of identity theft.
• 52,000 current Metro by T-Mobile prepaid customers. These may or may not be office of the 850,000 prepaid accounts already mentioned — T-Mobile is not clear nigh that. It's implied that these people's names, phone numbers and PINs were compromised.
• An undetermined number of names, phones numbers and PINs from inactive prepaid accounts.
• An undetermined number of phone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs without any names attached.

T-Mobile maintains that no credit-card information or any other type of financial information was compromised in this breach.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom'due south Guide focused on security and privacy. He has likewise been a dishwasher, fry cook, long-haul driver, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting effectually in the information-security infinite for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom'southward Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even moderated a console word at the CEDIA home-engineering briefing. Yous tin can follow his rants on Twitter at @snd_wagenseil.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/t-mobile-data-breach-hits-54-million

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