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

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

(Image credit: ehrlif/Shutterstock)

T-Mobile has upped its estimates of how many people were affected by its more recent data breach, adding some other 6 million accounts for a new total of 54 million in an updated blog post today (Aug. twenty).

If in that location's any silvery lining, none of these new vi 1000000 people had their Social Security numbers stolen, although most did have their names, dates of birth and phone numbers compromised. Those individuals are at slightly lower risk of identity theft than the 48 million whose SSNs and driver'due south licenses were pilfered.

• Identity theft victim? half dozen things yous need to do
• The best identity theft protection services
• Plus: AT&T denies 70 1000000 user records were stolen from its servers

The less-adept news is that well-nigh 13 million current T-Mobile customers did indeed take their telephone numbers compromised, along with their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which identify handsets, and their International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, which identify SIM cards.

Everyone affected past this breach is eligible for two costless years of McAfee ID Theft Protection, paid for by T-Mobile. At the moment, pretty much anyone tin can sign up to try to get that deal, whether you've ever been associated with T-Mobile or not, though at that place'southward no guarantee you'll actually authorize.

Meanwhile, the lawsuits accept begun. Vice Motherboard reports that a class-activity complaint was filed yesterday (Aug. 19) in federal court in Washington country on behalf of four individuals said to exist hurt by the T-Mobile information breach. The lawsuit does not specify an corporeality for an award but does demand a jury trial.

What yous demand to practise

If yous've ever had a T-Mobile account, or even but practical for one, you should take upwards the company on its offering of the free identity monitoring. That'south truthful even if you lot already have identity theft protection coverage as the result of another data alienation or that y'all pay for yourself.

You also demand to change the password and Pin on your T-Mobile account. T-Mo says that only nigh 900,000 prepaid customers (including, as of today, 52,000 Metro by T-Mobile users) had their PINs and passwords compromised, and that it has already reset the PINs for those customers.

Possibly every bit a outcome, it has also altered the official T-Mobile data breach response page to remove the links to reset your T-Mobile PIN and reset your T-Mobile password, although those pages are still upward.

If you're among the 48 million people whose names, addresses, dates of birth and SSNs were stolen, or among the 6 1000000 who had all that stolen except the addresses and SSN, contact 1 of the Big Three credit-reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to have fraud alerts placed on your credit files.

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

You lot should likewise consider instituting a credit freeze with each of the Big Three. Yous'll take to contact each one individually, only here'southward how. Credit freezes can complicate efforts to get a loan or open up a new payment business relationship, but you can temporarily "unfreeze" your files for a solar day or 2 if necessary.

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

Keeping track of all the unlike groups of people affected by this T-Mobile alienation isn't easy, just hither'southward our latest best effort.

• 7.8 1000000 current T-Mobile customers who take postpaid accounts, the kind for which you get a bill in the postal service. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of nascence, 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 commuter's licenses. These individuals are at high risk of identity theft.
• 40 million quondam T-Mobile postpaid customers and persons who applied for T-Mobile postpaid accounts. Many or nigh of these people have had their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver'due south licenses or other forms of ID compromised. Street addresses should likewise be considered compromised. These people are as well at loftier risk of identity theft.
• five.3 million current T-Mobile customers with postpaid accounts. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs compromised, but NOT their Social Security numbers or driver's licenses. (Some addresses don't seem to exist 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 bit.
• 667,000 one-time T-Mobile postpaid customers. Many or most of these people have had their names, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers compromised, but Non their Social Security numbers or commuter's licenses. These people are at medium adventure of identity theft.
• 850,000 current T-Mobile customers with prepaid/pay-equally-you-get 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 part of the 850,000 prepaid accounts already mentioned — T-Mobile is not clear well-nigh that. It'south implied that these people'southward 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 whatever other blazon of financial information was compromised in this breach.

Paul Wagenseil is a senior editor at Tom'southward Guide focused on security and privacy. He has also been a dishwasher, fry melt, long-haul commuter, code monkey and video editor. He's been rooting around in the information-security space for more than 15 years at FoxNews.com, SecurityNewsDaily, TechNewsDaily and Tom's Guide, has presented talks at the ShmooCon, DerbyCon and BSides Las Vegas hacker conferences, shown up in random TV news spots and even chastened a console discussion at the CEDIA home-applied science conference. You 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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