grrrrr....
On 2021-08-20 T-Mobile announced that unauthorized parties accessed personal information of more than 53 million current, former, and prospective customers (more than 5 million more people compared to the previous T-Mobile announcement).
Their on-going releases are at: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/network/additional-information-regarding-2021-cyberattack-investigation
The breach involved "first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information," ..."phone numbers, as well as IMEI and IMSI information, the typical identifier numbers associated with a mobile phone," with another group that also included "addresses." This is a massive data breach as well as a massive breach of trust.
August 19, 2021
NOTICE OF DATA BREACH:
Keeping you safe from cybersecurity threats.
What you need to know and how we’re protecting you.
https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/data-breach-2021
https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/data-breach-2021
Personal data made available through a data breach or through the series of data breaches that each of us have been experiencing help hostile parties who specialize in using your credit. You can resist their efforts by freezing your credit reports.
To freeze your credit reports in North America, you must work with each of the three major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Doing this free and does not impact your credit score. It prevents hostile parties with from opening new lines of credit without reversing each Freeze.
This is a powerful is preventative control.
Here are links to start freezing your credit reports:
Equifax https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services
or learn more about their process at: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
Experian https://www.experian.com/help/
TransUnion https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
If you use mobile messaging as part of your strong authentication with a bank or vendor you should investigate whether they support authenticator applications. Authenticator apps from Google and Microsoft are easy to set up and to use and they provide another layer of protection from SIM-swap attacks -- where the hostile party switches control of your phone number to a phone they have.
August 19, 2021
NOTICE OF DATA BREACH:
Keeping you safe from cybersecurity threats.
What you need to know and how we’re protecting you.
https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/data-breach-2021
"What you can do:
As we move quickly to protect you, we also want to equip you to protect yourself. It’s recommended that you take proactive steps regularly to protect your data and identity, and now’s a great time to do that. To be clear, we have no information that indicates any passwords, postpay PIN numbers, or financial or payment information have been compromised. Still, the following steps are always smart practices to help keep your account more secure. We encourage you to complete these actions as soon as possible:"
"T-Mobile: Breach Exposed SSN/DOB of 40M+ People." By Brian Krebs, August 18, 2021
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/08/t-mobile-breach-exposed-ssn-dob-of-40m-people/
"T-Mobile says hackers stole data of more than 40 million people -- The breach exposed social security numbers, driver’s license information and other personal data, the cellphone carrier says." By Hamza Shaban
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/18/t-mobile-data-breach-hackers/
"Here’s what to do if you think you’re affected by T-Mobile’s big data breach -- It’s worth taking action now, even as the wireless carrier continues its investigation." By Chris Velazco
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/08/19/t-mobile-data-breach-what-to-do/
"The Cybersecurity 202: There was another massive data breach. People will probably forget it in a week." By Joseph Marks
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/19/cybersecurity-202-there-was-another-massive-data-breach-people-will-probably-forget-it-week/
"T-Mobile breach hits 53 million customers as probe finds wider impact." By Akanksha Rana
https://www.reuters.com/technology/t-mobile-says-hackers-accessed-data-another-53-mln-subscribers-2021-08-20/
QUOTE: "T-mobile has had 6 other data breaches in the past 4 years," said Doug Schmidt, a professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University.
In this context, Facebook also had a huge breach recently as well:
"533 million Facebook users’ phone numbers, personal information exposed online, report says." By Hannah Knowles (April 3, 2021)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/04/03/facebook-data-leak-insider/