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Both T-Mobile and Experian — the credit agency they use for credit checks — have revealed that they were the subject of a major data breach, resulting in the stolen data of more than 15 million people, some of which were T-Mobile customers. Although both companies are apologizing for the breach, the blame lies solely on Experian who hackers managed to pilfer the names, addresses, birth dates, drivers license numbers, passport numbers, and social security numbers of T-Mobile customers between the dates of September 1st, 2013 through September 16th, 2015.
Even long standing customers who have been with T-Mobile before that time are still at risk since the carrier runs your credit whenever adding a new line, or upgrading a device. So if that sounds like you, be on the lookout. On the bright side, because customers’ bank accounts and credit card payment information was stored safely with T-Mobile, you don’t have to worry about that stuff making its way into hackers’ grimy little hands.
While there isn’t much T-Mobile can do, CEO John Legere certainly wasn’t exactly happy about the hack, saying they’re now reevaluating their relationship with Experian as a result. T-Mobile will begin alerting customers logging into their accounts while Experian will be alerting customers in writing. While the breach affects millions of current T-Mobile customers take note: even if you applied for service with T-Mobile during the timeline above and later cancelled or were rejected, you’re in the same boat as everyone else (myself included). Ugh.
Update: A previous version of this post stated the 15 million people affected by the hack were T-Mobile customers, but T-Mobile has since issued a correction and we’ve updated the post appropriately.
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