About 37 million customers of the mobile phone provider T-Mobile USA, which belongs to the Bonn-based Telekom Group, have fallen victim to a cyber attack. As has only now become known, the group was targeted by hackers between November 25 and January 5. Some – albeit apparently not very sensitive – customer data were captured.
With the help of external experts, the source of the attack was found and stopped. The investigations are still ongoing, but there is currently no evidence that it was possible to penetrate the system or network, the company announced on Thursday after the US stock market closed.
It could not be ruled out that the attack could entail high costs. T-Mobile shares initially fell more than two percent in after-hours trading in the US. However, according to the company, it is not about highly sensitive customer data. According to preliminary findings, phone numbers, birth records and billing addresses may have been stolen, but not passwords, credit card or social security numbers.
Repeatedly targeted by cybercriminals
Based on the previous investigation, according to T-Mobile, customer accounts and financial data were not directly at risk. But the investigations continued. The company has been repeatedly targeted by cybercriminals in recent years. In 2021, T-Mobile fell victim to an attack in which, according to the then company, the data of more than 40 million former customers and potential buyers fell into the hands of hackers. In 2015, an attack on a service provider’s servers stole sensitive data from more than 15 million T-Mobile customers.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
