https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • SDN/SD-WAN
    • Cloud
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Telephony/UC/Collaboration
    • Cable
    • Mobility & Wireless
    • Fiber/Ethernet
    • Data Centers
    • Backup & Disaster Recovery
    • IoT
    • Desktop
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Analytics
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Channel Research
    • Business Models
    • Distribution
    • Technology Solutions Brokerages
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Best Practices
    • Vertical Markets
    • Regulation & Compliance
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2022 NextGen 101 Rankings
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • From the Industry
    • Reports/Digital Issues
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • Channel Futures TV
  • EMEA
  • Channel Chatter
    • Back
    • People on the Move
    • New/Changing Channel Programs
    • New Products & Services
    • Industry Honors
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Advisory Boards
    • Industry Organizations
    • Our Sponsors
    • Advertise
    • 2022 Editorial Calendar
  • Awards
    • Back
    • 2022 MSP 501
    • Channel Influencers
    • Circle of Excellence
    • DE&I 101
    • Channel Partners 101 (CP 101)
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • MSP Summit
    • Channel Partners Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
    • Industry Events
  • About Us
  • DE&I
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Agents
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • Channel Partners Events
 Channel Futures

Security


Shutterstock

Data breach done in T-Mobile pink

T-Mobile Investigating Reported Data Breach Involving 100 Million Customers

  • Written by Edward Gately
  • August 16, 2021
One cybersecurity expert said this breach could involve all T-Mobile customers past and present.

T-Mobile is investigating a reported breach in which a hacker claims to be selling the personal information of over 100 million of its customers.

The T-Mobile data breach was first reported by Vice, a U.S.-based digital media outlet. It said a forum post claims to be selling a mountain of personal data. The forum post itself doesn’t mention T-Mobile. However, the seller reportedly said they have obtained data related to over 100 million people. In addition, the data came from T-Mobile servers.

The data includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, driver licenses information and more, the seller said.

T-Mobile Working ‘Around the Clock’

T-Mobile sent us the following statement:

“We have been working around the clock to investigate claims being made that T-Mobile data may have been illegally accessed. We take the protection of our customers very seriously. And we are conducting an extensive analysis alongside digital forensic experts to understand the validity of these claims. And we are coordinating with law enforcement.”

“We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred. However, we have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved. We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed. And we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed. This investigation will take some time, but we are working with the highest degree of urgency. Until we have completed this assessment, we cannot confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others.”

“We understand that customers will have questions and concerns, and resolving those is critically important to us. Once we have a more complete and verified understanding of what occurred, we will proactively communicate with our customers and other stakeholders.”

Retaliation for U.S. Cyber Espionage Activity?

Vectra's Hitesh Sheth

Vectra’s Hitesh Sheth

Hitesh Sheth is president and CEO of Vectra, an artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity provider.

“T-Mobile’s attackers apparently claim they ransacked company databases as reprisal for U.S. espionage activity,” he said. “They do not seem to be demanding ransom. If true, it further blurs the lines in cyberwar between government and private assets. Every business has to consider what kind of prize it, too, might represent to threat actors out to score political points.”

If privately-owned infrastructure is going to suffer retaliation for things government does, businesses must shore up their cyber defenses.

“It’s vital that deeper, smarter public-private partnerships define cybersecurity norms, roles and responsibilities,” Sheth said. “Like it or not, when a critical enterprise is a cyber target, it’s playing a role in national defense.”

More Attacks Expected Thanks to Reused Passwords

Approov's David Stewart

Approov’s David Stewart

David Stewart is CEO of Approov, an API security provider.

“If this T-Mobile data breach turns out to be genuine, and the initial signs are that it is, it is an alarm call to all enterprises who may share customers with T-Mobile,” he said. “With 100 million users’ data for sale on the dark web, including usernames, passwords and other personal data, all such enterprises should expect script-driven credential-stuffing attacks imminently against their APIs.”

The probability that passwords have been reused across platforms is extremely high, Stewart said. Therefore, some of the T-Mobile credentials will also be valid for other platforms.

All enterprises need to ensure that API calls are authorized by at least one independent authentication factor over and above their standard user authentication method, he said.

One of the Largest, Most Sophisticated Attacks Ever

Gurucul's Saryu Nayyar

Gurucul’s Saryu Nayyar

Saryu Nayyar is founder and CEO of Gurucul, a behavior-based security analytics provider. She said that 100 million-plus number seems to indicate that it’s the entire T-Mobile list of customers, present and past. That makes the T-Mobile breach “one of the largest and most sophisticated attacks on record.”

Nayyar said this attack is unique because the attackers are offering to sell the most sensitive data back to T-Mobile.

“This makes it a type of ransomware attack, although it also involves data theft,” she said. “T-Mobile should be wary of doing this, as data [can] be copied and resold outside of any agreement reached. But it seems that hackers believe that a ransomware approach offers a more fruitful means to profit than selling account data on the open market.”

Backdoor Access Gained

Hank Schless is senior manager of security solutions at Lookout, an endpoint-to-cloud security company.

“Reports on this data breach indicate that the attacker was able to gain backdoor access to T-Mobile’s infrastructure in order to access…

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
Tags: Agents Mobility & Wireless Security Technologies

Most Recent


  • Black Hat expo hall 2022
    The Gately Report: Black Hat USA Edition with Cisco, IBM, CISA, More
    Black Hat USA has come roaring back since the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Making Waves
    7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Microsoft, Rackspace, RingCentral, Avaya
    Hackers targeted one UCaaS firm by impersonating the company's IT department.
  • Hired
    Former CenturyLink, Spearhead Channel Leader Joins Equinix
    Equinix conducted about 30% of its business through partners a year ago and has vowed to increase that number.
  • Welcome Mat
    Okta Names Splunk Vet New Global Channel Chief
    Okta's global channel chief left the company in June.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Partner Program Update
    Rave Partner Program Offers New Opportunities for VARs, SIs, Technology Partners
  • AT&T cuts
    Lumen Tops Latest Omdia SIP Trunking Service Scorecard, Bandwidth Biggest Standout
  • Cautious Optimism
    Cautious but Continued Optimism for MSPs in Channel Futures’ Exclusive Quarterly Survey
  • Customer Experience
    The Customer Experience Advantage in a Managed Services World

Upcoming Events

View all

MSP Summit

September 13, 2022 - September 16, 2022

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

May 1, 2023 - May 4, 2023

Galleries

View all

The Gately Report: Black Hat USA Edition with Cisco, IBM, CISA, More

August 12, 2022

7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Microsoft, Rackspace, RingCentral, Avaya

August 12, 2022

Oracle Cloud & AT&T, AWS Lead Cloud News Roundup

August 12, 2022

Industry Perspectives

View all

How to Take Shared Responsibility for Securing Cloud

August 11, 2022

Seize the Application Modernization Opportunity

August 2, 2022

A Growth Mindset: Your Organization’s Strategic Differentiator

August 1, 2022

Webinars

View all

Outsmarting RaaS: Implementation Strategies To Help Your Clients Before, During, and After a Ransomware Attack

August 23, 2022

Why it is Important to Upgrade Aging Servers and How to use Live Optics to Upgrade Efficiently

August 25, 2022

Executives at Home are Not Alright: An Intro to Digital Executive Protection

September 8, 2022

White Papers

View all

Work Goes Remote – (and Other Top ITOps Trends)

May 25, 2022

The New Bottom Line: How MSPs Can Meet the Healthcare Crisis While Evolving Their Businesses

April 19, 2022

How to build a Security Operations Center (on a budget)

April 4, 2022

Channel Futures TV

View all

ThreatLocker Preaches Zero Trust, Addresses Industry Competition

ScienceLogic Debuts New Partner Portal

August 9, 2022

Vonage a ‘Single Communications Stack Provider’ for Partners, Customers

June 27, 2022

IBM, Partners and the $1 Trillion Hybrid Cloud Opportunity

June 26, 2022

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@splunk vet Bill Hustad named @Okta's new #channelchief. dlvr.it/SWXmws https://t.co/ILQesul0Cz

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

The Gately Report: #BHUSA edition with @Hacker0x01, @Cisco, @SaltSecurity, @CISAgov, @ExtraHop, @IBMSecurity, more.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

Channel People Making Waves Include: @kencarnesi, @szebenisz, @vasujakkal, @brettsmith52, @DaveMichels… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

Nancy Henriquez, VP of Sales & Marketing at MSP 501 award-winning @synetek, touches on the importance of gathering… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

.@Equinix's new hire is a familiar face in the telco channel. dlvr.it/SWXV6v https://t.co/jIg0LrZ4DO

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

Missed the news this week from @OracleCloud and @ATTBusiness? We've got it here. Plus, news from @AWSCloud and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

Huge channel-impacting acquisitions in the past month. We've got details on @IBM, @nokia, @GoTo, @EnsonoIT,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022
ChannelFutures

Boost privacy by design with #shiftleft mindset and add #security to cloud deployments from start, says… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

August 12, 2022

MSP 501

The industry's largest and most comprehensive partner awards program.

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Galleries

Educational slide shows and images from live events.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Events
  • Telecoms.com
  • MSP 501
  • Black Hat
  • IoT World Today
  • Omdia

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X