Many companies, including multiple cellular companies, have had their fair share of data breaches. We’ve covered them in the past (and even broke the news on one).
That makes it easy to assume that any time someone claims there’s been another data breach, it’s the truth. This time, however, when it comes to a recent claim about T-Mobile, that hopefully isn’t the case.
Claims of a new data breach at T-Mobile
A news article from cybernews claimed earlier today, June 12th, that T-Mobile may have suffered a huge data breach consisting of over 64 million records. The source of the alleged breach is a data breach forum popular for selling or attempting to sell this type of data.
The breach allegedly consists of names and addresses, dates of birth, tax IDs, phone numbers, IP addresses, and more. It’s pretty much the worst type of breach there is.
It would be a huge problem if true, but luckily T-Mobile says it’s all bogus. At least…in terms of it coming from them.
T-Mobile’s response
In a response to our inquiry on the matter, T-Mobile has stated they have examined the sample data closely, and it was not related to T-Mobile or its customers.
Any reports of a T-Mobile data breach are inaccurate. We have reviewed the sample data provided and can confirm the data does not relate to T-Mobile or our customers.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile was pretty quick to respond to our inquiry, and we thank them for the fast responses.
That being said, we did find some troubling indicators that the data included in the leak could be legitimate, if not directly from T-Mobile.
Suspicious data
An independent examination of the sample data reveals that some of the information is not currently in Have I Been Pwned.
HaveIBeenPwned.com, a website dedicated to providing a way to check if your data has been leaked on the internet, is run by security researcher Troy Hunt. The site has indexed nearly a whopping 15 billion accounts that have been leaked over the years. It’s proof that no matter how hard you try, sometimes these things are inevitable.
This means it’s likely at least somewhat unique data that hasn’t been leaked before. Some email addresses we checked were in the database, but not across consistent sources. Others weren’t in the database at all. Phone numbers we checked weren’t labeled as “T-Mobile” numbers on online tools, either, though that doesn’t mean much.
Typically, data breach data is pretty quickly added to Have I Been Pwned, so to see that some of the leaked sample data isn’t there is a bit worrying. So what’s going on?
Where is this data from?
In our opinion, there are a few possibilities here.
First, the data could simply be old data combined from previous breaches. This was what we originally thought was the case, but some of the sample data not being in HIBP makes this option less likely.
A second possibility is that this is a breach of a third-party system that is adjacent to T-Mobile could be involved. A similar situation was thought to have happened last month when claims of a Steam data breach were made. This would mean that T-Mobile isn’t the source of the breach.
Finally, it could just simply be fake. There is a chance the data is comprised of both real data breach information from past leaks as well as faked new info to make it seem legitimate. It’s possible, and would be an example of someone possibly trying to make a quick buck.
That being said, there’s signs that the poster who shared the leak has shared other legitimate leaks in the past, so we’re not sure what to make of the situation. It could be anything at this point.
We do, however, take T-Mobile’s view of the situation as truth. We believe, for now, that T-Mobile themselves has not been breached.
What’s the conclusion?
We all get a bit uneasy when we hear we might be part of a data breach leaking our personal information. It’s a big problem in modern times, and all sorts of companies have had issues keeping our data secure.
In this particular case, we’d have to say it’s too early to tell. Right now, though, we believe T-Mobile in that the data isn’t from them and isn’t associated with them or their customers.
This is a developing story, so if we find out this is more serious, we’ll be sure to update you here on The Mobile Report.
We also want to be clear, there is currently no proof of a data breach this week at T-Mobile. Hopefully that remains the case, and maybe we can one day soon see large data breaches as a thing of the past all together.
