T-Mobile checking claims 100 million people had their data stolen from its servers

Iphone 11 Pro Mint Mobile Hero
Iphone 11 Pro Mint Mobile Hero (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

  • T-Mobile is investigating claims that 100 million users had their data stolen from its servers.
  • A forum post claims to be from someone ready to sell the data.

Carrier T-Mobile is investigating claims that 100 million people had their data stolen right off its servers after someone posted to a forum saying they had the information for sale.

As reported by Vice, a forum member didn't explicitly say that the data came from T-Mobile initially, but later did confirm that it originated from the carrier's servers.

"T-Mobile USA. Full customer info," the seller told Motherboard in an online chat. The seller said they compromised multiple servers related to T-Mobile.

The data includes various pieces of information that could be useful to someone trying to steal an identity, including "social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information."

The forum member was asking for 6 bitcoin, or around $270,000, for some of the data including 30 million social security numbers and driver licenses. The rest of the data, Vice reports, is being sold privately.

T-Mobile's statement on the subject reads "We are aware of claims made in an underground forum and have been actively investigating their validity. We do not have any additional information to share at this time." The hacker noted that they have now lost access to the servers they stole the data from, pointing out that they had already downloaded it for safekeeping locally.

T-Mobile has long been a popular option for people on the lookout for a great iPhone carrier. But security issues like this might give new customers pause, not that the competition is invulnerable to their own security issues.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.