T-Mobile has admitted today that a small section of its customer data was accessed by hackers on August 20th, 2018. However, the Telecommunication giant of the United States has clarified that the hackers did not gain access to any sensitive info such as financial data, social security numbers, or passwords of its customers.
As per the sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders, some personal customer data may have been exposed in the breach which includes phone numbers, email addresses, account numbers, account type, and billing zip codes.
The hack might have affected over 2.3 million customers of T-Mobile out of a total 77 million customer base. It has to be notified over here that only those customers who have purchased an Apple iPhone from Apple’s online store have fallen prey to the hackers.
It’s said that those purchasing iPhone from Apple Online store should punch in the last 4 digits of social security number if they plan to own the device via finance. And since the online purchasing page allowed users to make an infinite number of attempts to punch in the correct numbers it made the platform vulnerable to brute force attacks to which a small amount of T-Mobile user base was exposed.
All those customers who have been affected by the breach are said to receive an email alert soon. Now to those enthusiasts who want to know whether they’re affected in advance, they can call to 611 or use the T-Mobile app to know the details. Premium business customers and MetroPCS customers can call to 611 from their phones for details assistance.
The law enforcement has been informed about the breach and the telecom giant has already taken all measures to contain the severity of the breach.
Like T-Mobile, hackers with access to AT&T and Sprint phone number could also punch in 4 digit pin until the correct one would be identified- to conduct an online purchase fraud.
Note 1- In Feb this year, it was revealed that a critical T-Mobile Bug allowed hackers to access user accounts for months. In October last year, some security analysts discovered a flaw in T-Mobile database that could let hackers access sensitive info of customers which includes email addresses, billing account numbers, and IMSI numbers of mobile phones. But reports of the flaw being misused by hackers weren’t reported.
Note 2- With the backup from Trump Administration, T-mobile is said to launch the next generation of wireless 5G technology in the United States by early 2019. Once, rolled out the company plans to offer low-cost 5G network coverage across the United States by 2020.
