T-Mobile data breach affects 40 million

Hackers accessed the names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license information, and other data of former and prospective customers who applied for T-Mobile credit. The same data for nearly 8 million current T-Mobile monthly customers appears to be compromised. The cellular company also confirmed that nearly a million active prepaid clients’ names, phone numbers, and account PINs were exposed.

How significant is the breach? T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Wash., became one of the country’s largest cellphone service carriers, along with AT&T and Verizon, after buying rival Sprint last year. Data thieves have hit the company before, but the number of affected customers in this case far exceeds those of previous breaches, Gartner analyst Paul Furtado said.

Dig deeper: Read my 2020 report in The Sift about the legal hurdles T-Mobile had to jump in order to purchase Sprint.