T-Mobile CEO Opens Up On Data Breach, Hacker Calls Their Security Awful

A recent T-Mobile data breach coughed up the information of more than 50 million people, including some who aren’t current customers or never were. The 21-year-old hacker who says they’re responsible for the attack already did an interview called T-Mobile’s security “awful,” and now CEO Mike Sievert is speaking out. T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert penned a letter to T-Mobile customers apologizing for the recent data breach that impacted more than 50 million current, former, and prospective T-Mobile users. According to online sources, the hacker claims to have obtained the information from multiple T-Mobile servers. The publication has cited samples of the data and confirms that it contains accurate details about T-Mobile users.

Sievert says he’s taking a moment to update users that the breach has been contained and the investigation is “substantially complete.” “Keeping our customers’ data safe is a responsibility we take incredibly seriously and preventing this type of event from happening has always been a top priority of ours,” he writes.

It’s true that these attacks happen to many companies, but it’s hard to take the statement as sincere when T-Mobile has had at least five breaches since 2018. That includes this one, two in 2020, plus one each for 2018 and 2019. Reports hold as far back as 2018 when T-Mobile revealed a breach that potentially exposed information such as customers’ email addresses and phone numbers. One year later, the wireless carrier disclosed a “criminal hack” of customer data, exposing personal information such as names, billing addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, and wireless plans. This fifth breach in four years and the largest one yet. It remains unclear what’ll happen to the stolen data of millions of T-Mobile users as claimed by the hacker. However, if this data ends up being sold, it could potentially harm all the affected users and also spark lawsuits against T-Mobile.

To do something about it, T-Mobile is partnering with cybersecurity firm Mandiant and consultants at KPMG to tighten things up. Will that put an end to this ridiculous streak of insecurity? No one can know, but that’s more than the “sorry for any inconvenience” notes released after some of the past breaches, and of course, all the subscribers got a free year of Apple TV Plus. Too bad it’s only happening after a hacker made off with enough IMEI/IMSI, driver’s license, social security data, and other sensitive personal information of millions of T-Mobile customers to spend the next few years stealing identities and phone numbers at will.