T-Mobile Confirms Data Breach But Isn't Sure What Was Accessed

2021 didn't start out great for T-Mobile, and it seems that its luck isn't turning for the better just yet. In addition to the severe winter freeze earlier this year and increased scrutiny over its Sprint acquisition, it is facing not one but two severe hacking incidents. T-Mobile just confirmed that it has indeed been the victim of a data breach, but it is still investigating what data was illegally accessed and if that data really included customer information.

After news broke out Sunday that the network operator may have just been hacked, T-Mobile put out an official statement confirming the speculation. It briefly said that "some" T-Mobile data may have been accessed but that the entry point for that unauthorized entry has now been closed. The more worrying detail about the announcement, however, is that the carrier is still trying to identify the nature of the data that was stolen.

If the earlier reports are to be believed, the hackers got away with data from 100 million T-Mobile customers. In fact, they were trying to sell off 30 million social security and IMEI numbers related to that data heist. Considering T-Mobile reportedly has almost 105 million customers, that's a terrifying thought.

This isn't T-Mobile's first data breach this year, either. At the beginning of 2021, it also confirmed that hackers accessed servers holding Customer Proprietary Network Information or CPNI. T-Mobile explained that the incident affected only 0.2% of its customers and didn't include critical data like credit card numbers. Or at least that's what T-Mobile publicly revealed.

The carrier says that it might take some time for the investigation to yield anything fruitful and it will withhold confirming any reports about the data stolen. T-Mobile does promise to help protect affected customers, but that protection will only be effective if done before hackers are able to exploit the data they have stolen.