Hacker Accesses Personal Data Of 37 Million T-Mobile Customers; How To Check If Your Data Is Breached

T-Mobile disclosed that a hacker gained access to a treasure trove of personal information belonging to 37 million users.

The telecommunications behemoth claimed Thursday that the data theft began on Nov. 25 and that the "bad actor" stole "name, billing address, email, phone number, date of birth, T-Mobile account number, information such as the number of lines on the account and plan features."

The company has informed federal agencies about the issue and is now collaborating with law enforcement to look into the data breach.

"Our investigation is still ongoing, but the malicious activity appears to be fully contained at this time, and there is currently no evidence that the bad actor was able to breach or compromise our systems or our network," the company said, as per Bleeping Computer.

Since 2018, the company has experienced eight hacks in total. The most recent incident occurred in 2022 when a group of hackers going by the name of Lapsus$ managed to gain access to the business's internal tools. This allowed them to perform so-called SIM swaps, a type of hack in which hackers take control of a victim's phone number and then attempt to use it to reset and access the target's sensitive accounts like email or cryptocurrency wallets. T-Mobile misused an application programming interface (API) rather than breaking any business systems.

How to check if your data is breached?

If you're concerned that your data may have been compromised in the T-Mobile data breach, you can check the Have I Been Pwned website. Just enter your phone number or email address, and the site will tell you if your data has been exposed.

What to do after your data is exposed to hackers?

There's no doubt that data breaches are becoming increasingly common. In fact, according to a recent study from KPMG, 62% of businesses in the Americas experienced a data breach or other cyber event in 2021. And with the Equifax breach still fresh in our minds, it's clear that these incidents can have far-reaching consequences.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having your data exposed to hackers, there are a few things you should do as soon as possible.

First, assess the situation and try to determine what kind of data has been compromised. This will help you determine the potential severity of the breach and what steps you need to take to protect yourself.

Next, contact the police and the other relevant authorities. They may be able to help you track down the hackers and investigate the breach.

Then, take steps to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud. This includes changing your passwords, monitoring your credit report and being extra vigilant about suspicious emails and activity on your accounts.

Finally, reach out to a professional to help you recover from the breach. A data recovery specialist can help you identify and restore any lost or corrupted data.