T-Mobile Discloses Data Breach That Impacted About 3 Percent Of Customers

T-Mobile disclosed on its website that hackers were able to get into the company’s network, stealing personal information on customers.

A post on the wireless carrier’s website said that on August 20 its cybersecurity team discovered and shut down an unauthorized access to certain information, which it said it promptly reported to authorities. T-Mobile said that the hackers didn’t steal financial information, social security numbers, or passwords in the hack. T-Mobile did say that some personal information may have been exposed including name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number and account type. “Out of an abundance of caution, we wanted to let you know about an incident that we recently handled that may have impacted some of your personal information,” T-Mobile wrote. “We take the security of your information very seriously and have a number of safeguards in place to protect your personal information from unauthorized access. We truly regret that this incident occurred and are so sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you.”

While T-Mobile didn’t say how many customers were impacted in the breach, a spokesperson told Motherboard that it impacted “about” or “slightly less than” 3 percent of its 77 million customers which amounts to around two million people. “Fortunately not many,” the spokesperson said in a text message, adding she could not say the exact number, reported Motherboard.

While it’s not clear the size and scope of the breach, one thing is for sure — the cost to deal with it is on the rise. According to recent research from Kaspersky Lab, that the average cost of experiencing a data breach globally is on the rise. The annual Kaspersky Lab Corporate IT Security Risks survey is a worldwide survey of IT business decision makers, which this year had a total of 6,614 respondents from 29 countries. The company found that breaches now amount to $1.23 million on average for enterprises (up 24 percent from $992K in 2017), and $120,000 on average for small and medium-sized businesses (up 36 percent from $88K in 2017).