Boston — U.S. carrier T-Mobile said on Thursday that an unidentified malicious intruder broke into its network in late November and stole the data of its 37 million customers, including addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth. announced.
T-Mobile said in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the infringement was discovered on January 5. Based on investigations to date, the data exposed did not include passwords, his PIN, bank accounts or credit cards, he said. Information, social security number or other government ID.
“The investigation is still ongoing, but at this time it appears that the malicious activity has been fully contained,” T-Mobile said, adding that there was no evidence that the intruder was able to enter the company’s network. He said the data was first accessed around November 25th.
T-Mobile said it notified law enforcement and federal agencies, but did not name them. Did not immediately respond to emails requesting comment.
The company has been hacked many times in recent years. T-Mobile said in its filing that it does not expect the latest data breach to have a material impact on its business. But Neil Mack, a senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, said in a statement that the breach raises questions about management’s cyber governance, alienates customers, and threatens the sanctions of the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators. He said it could attract scrutiny.
“Though these cybersecurity breaches may not be systematic in nature, the frequency at T-Mobile is a surprising outlier compared to its industry peers,” Mack said. I’m here.
In July, T-Mobile awarded $350 million to customers who filed a class action lawsuit after the company revealed personal data, including social security numbers and driver’s license information, had been stolen in August 2021. agreed to pay About 80 million US residents were affected.
It also said it would spend $150 million by 2023 to improve data security and other technologies.
Prior to the August 2021 breach, the company disclosed breaches that accessed customer information in January 2021, November 2019, and August 2018.
Bellevue, Washington-based T-Mobile became one of the nation’s largest mobile service carriers in 2020 after acquiring rival Sprint. Post-merger customer numbers are reported to have exceeded 102 million.