According to a report by CNN, T-Mobile USA subscribers who applied for a regular postpaid plan between Sept. 1 and Sept. 16 might be affected by the data breach suffered by Experian, one of the mobile company's three major credit bureaus that conduct credit checks on its customers.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere released a statement regarding this breach on the T-mobile website, saying they have been informed by Experian that they experienced a data breech and that the hackers were able to obtain information about 15 million of its subscribers.
The records that were stolen reportedly include information such as names, addresses, birthdates, social security numbers, and identification numbers for driver's licenses and passports. T-Mobile's own credit assessment is also said to have been stolen.
Legere says he is very angry about the incident and that T-Mobile will do a thorough investigation about it. He also said that the company's first priority is to make sure that they assist their subscribers who have been affected by the breech, stressing that he takes the privacy of their customers very seriously. T-Mobile has released a FAQ sheet regarding this matter.
In addition, Legere also said that anyone who might have been affected by this incident can avail of credit monitoring and identity resolution services for two years without paying for anything.
Experian has also released its own statement regarding the issue saying that they discovered the breech last Sept. 15 and that it was caused by an unauthorized third party hacking into T-Mobile's data residing in its server.
Experian gave assurance that it has informed proper authorities regarding the matter and they have taken added measures to avoid the same incident from happening again. The credit bureau also said that the breech was an isolated incident and that other than the aforementioned information stolen, data such as customers' payment card or banking details remain safe.
