Security leak at the US branch of this global telecom company
Recently T-Mobile disclosed a security breach that impacted a small percentage of its customer base.
Specifically, the breach revealed certain information belonging to a small number of the company's prepaid cellphone users.
The exposed data included customer names, billing addresses, account numbers, rate plans, plan features, and user phone numbers. The company stressed that no payment card information or passwords were compromised.
Law enforcement is looking into the breach
T-Mobile has contacted and has begun working with police and other law enforcement agencies to further investigate the matter. If you were among the impacted users, you should have already received an SMS today from the company. If you haven't received a notification and you're concerned that you may have been impacted, you can get a definitive answer from T-Mobile by contacting them at privacy@t-mobile.com.
This has been a fairly good year for telecoms in general. Other than Sprint's data breach earlier in the year, this is only the second data breach in 2019 involving a major telecom company.
As breaches go, this one is quite minor, and odds are quite small that you have been impacted by it. Again though, if it's something you're worried about, the company has made it easy to get peace of mind. Overall, T-Mobile's handling of the incident has been better than average. In the weeks ahead as the investigation draws to a close, if there are new details to be learned, the company will no doubt disclose them when and as they are able.
Our perspective
With 2019 rapidly drawing to a close, it seems unlikely that we'll see a spate of Telecomm data breaches. 2019 is likely to be remembered as a year where the Telecomm companies dodged a bullet. Overall, the total number of data breaches continues to surge higher, a trend that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
~ As Hill Street Blues' Sgt. Esterhaus always advised: "Hey, let's be careful out there! " ~
Meanwhile, check out this report
This free executive report may give you insights into how to build your business with safe IT environments: 10 Hidden IT Risks That Might Threaten Your Business and 1 Easy Way to Find Them
The author
Thanks for reading this short post. For more tips on thriving with small business technology, check out the other blog posts at DWPia Blogs. I am also available on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
I am Denis Wilson, President and Principal Consultant for DWP Information Architects. I help professionals grow their business by building a foundation of rock-solid information solutions for smaller healthcare, insurance, financial, legal, and nonprofits firms in Ventura County and San Fernando Valley. And have created cost-effective IT solutions, for over 20 years, specializing in cybersecurity and regulatory compliance. I am also a published author and speaker, working extensively with a variety of organizations, as well as providing small business technology education programs through business and professional associations. This just in: I will be speaking regularly at California Lutheran University's Center for Nonprofit Leadership starting in September.
Contact me if you would like me to speak at your association.
