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 with the Wall Street Journal calling its security “awful,” and now CEO Mike Sievert is speaking out.
Sievert says he’s taking a moment to update us now that the breach is 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.
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, and social security data to spend the next few years stealing identities and phone numbers at will.
