If you use T-Mobile wireless phone service, beware of phishing attacks in the coming weeks T-Mobile has confirmed that it has suffered a data breach in which hackers may have accessed information about your wireless account.
The good news - no personal information such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, or credit card information was compromised, T-Mobile says. However, hackers may have seen subscribers' phone numbers, account line numbers, and some calling information. This is data that hackers could use in phishing scams to try to get other information, such as passwords.
T-Mobile told Bleeping Computer that the breach only affected less than 0.2% of its customers. With 140 million customers at the end of the third quarter of this year, that means about 208,800 customers T-Mobile said it is contacting affected customers and has also posted a security notice with additional information about the breach.
This is not the first time T-Mobile has suffered a data breach in the past year; in March, the company announced that criminals may have obtained customer names and addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, rate plans and features, and billing information. No financial or Social Security information was ever in the wrong hands, as in this leak.
If you have any questions about this information breach, T-Mobile says you can contact them online, in stores, or through the carrier's customer service department at 1-800-937-8997.
The only course of action you should take seems to be to be more vigilant than usual with emails from senders you don't recognize, lest you fall victim to a phishing campaign that uses the information from the information breach. In other words, don't click on links in unsolicited e-mails, but verify the sender's e-mail address.
Good security habits can also help minimize the impact of a data breach such as this one. Use strong passwords and do not reuse the same password for multiple accounts. The use of a password manager can also be helpful in this regard. As an additional precaution, one can also run some of the best anti-virus software.
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