Millions affected by T-Mobile/Experian data breach

“A data security breach that affected Experian’s credit report files would be a terrifying and unmitigated disaster”.

Consumers who are affected should consider registering for a credit freeze with all three major credit reporting agencies as a precautionary measure, Koster said.

The lawmakers’ letter comes in response to news that hackers acquired data including the names, addresses, birthdates and social security numbers for 15 million T-Mobile customers.

Credit monitoring alerts consumers to fraud after the fact, so it’s better to also have a credit freeze already in place.

On the attorney general’s website, the office provides information on what to to do if identify theft is suspected.

Consumers can freeze their credit reports to make release of their information impossible without permission.

Request a “fraud alert” be placed on your accounts to alert you to any attempts to open a line of credit in your name by calling one of the national credit bureaus before they are approved.

Now exactly what Experian does to safeguard that information – and how it differs from the company’s credit report databases – is under the microscope. “Senators have now written to Experian asking for more information about what happened”.

T-Mobile last week notified its customers that hackers had compromised encrypted data at Experian, which processes the telecom carrier’s credit applications, sometime in September. For someone who says that he takes “customer and prospective customer privacy VERY seriously”, (emphasis Legere’s) it seems odd to me that he’s putting the safety of their identities in the hands of a firm that was just hacked.

According to Experian’s estimate, personal information of 263,000 Missourians was affected by the breach. In a previous incident, it allowed a hacker to steal untold millions of identities from its database through another company.

T-Mobile employs a company named Experian to perform credit checks. It is also offering those impacted by the break-in two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft resolution services.