Experian Says Info From 15 Million T-Mobile Customers Hacked

The records contained name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, identification number (typically a driver’s license, military ID, or passport number) and additional information used in T- Mobile’s own credit assessment.

Experian says that on September 15, an unauthorized party accessed T-Mobile data that was stored in one of its servers. The agency says that the personal information of those applicants of T-Mobile who applied between Sept 1, 2013 and September 16, 2015 may have been hacked. Also, the company is offering a free 2-year protection plan to help T-Mobile consumers monitor their credit and protect their identity whether they were affected by the hack or not.

Experian – which didn’t reveal from what company unit the information was gleaned – said it was in the process of notifying consumers that may be affected.

Experian said on its website that it doesn’t know who was behind the hack and that it is taking “necessary steps” to prevent further breaches.

It said that when it did it would offer them a two year subscription to the services that Experian provides to keep personal data safe.

Shore Capital said this was “an important incident, which needs a prompt and strong response and, as much as possible, future prevention”.

T-Mobile is the third biggest wireless carrier in the USA, behind Verizon and AT&T. That’s what T-Mobile chief John Legere just did: he admitted that there was a data breach on Experian. “I take our customers’ and prospective customers’ privacy very seriously”.

The danger in any breach of a data broker like Experian, of course, is that the company aggregates information on many millions of consumers for credit checks and marketing.

Legere said T-Mobile’s systems and network were not affected and no customer payment card numbers or bank account information was taken. This is no small issue for us.