BELLEVUE, Wash. — T-Mobile says the information of about 7.8 million of its current postpaid customers has been stolen in a “highly sophisticated” cyberattack on its systems.
Additionally, the mobile communications company says the attack exposed the records of more than 40 million former or prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with T-Mobile.
Also, the company says about 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid customer names, phone numbers and account PINs were exposed.
T-Mobile has brought in experts to investigate the attack, which it reportedly learned of last week. As a result of the probe, the company says it had closed the access point that it believes was used to illegally gain entry to its servers.
Some of the data accessed did include customers’ first and last names, date of birth, social security numbers, and driver’s license/ID information for a subset of current and former postpay customers and prospective T-Mobile customers, according to the company.
T-Mobile says there’s no indication that the data contained in the stolen files included any customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information.
“Importantly, no phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information were compromised in any of these files of customers or prospective customers,” wrote the company.
T-Mobile says it’s taking steps to help protect those who may be at risk from the cyberattack and communications will be issued shortly that outline what the company is doing.
The actions T-Mobile is taking include offering two years of free identity protection services with McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service, recommending all T-Mobile postpaid customers proactively change their PIN, offering an extra step to protect their mobile account, and publishing a web page with information and solutions to help customers take steps to further protect themselves.
“We take our customers’ protection very seriously and we will continue to work around the clock on this forensic investigation to ensure we are taking care of our customers in light of this malicious attack,” wrote the company in its statement. “While our investigation is ongoing, we wanted to share these initial findings even as we may learn additional facts through our investigation that cause the details above to change or evolve.”