One of the largest telecommunications providers in the United States has disclosed yet another T-Mobile data breach. The intrusion, which occurred between February 24 and March 30, 2023, marks the company’s second network intrusion this year, and its ninth since 2018. The breach compromised the personal data of 836 subscribers, according to a notification posted on the website of Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey.
The data accessed by the hackers varied but may have included sensitive information such as customers’ full names, contact details, account numbers, T-Mobile account PINs, social security numbers, government IDs, dates of birth, balances due, and internal codes used by T–Mobile to service customer accounts. This information is highly valuable to cybercriminals, who can use it for a variety of fraudulent activities, including identity theft, financial fraud, and phishing attacks.
T-Mobile data breach: Company discloses the second hack this year
T-Mobile also reported that the hackers gained access to its internal systems and tools, which enabled them to carry out so-called SIM swaps. SIM swapping is a type of hack that allows unauthorized individuals to port someone’s phone number to their device. This gives them access to the victim’s phone calls, text messages, and other sensitive data, and can be used to bypass two-factor authentication measures.
In response to the breach, T-Mobile data breach reset all affected account PINs and sent notifications to all impacted customers. However, this incident is the second data breach to hit T-Mobile this year. In January 2023, the company disclosed a separate hack that exposed the data of 37 million customers.
These repeated incidents highlight the urgent need for stronger cybersecurity measures and more robust data protection protocols across the telecommunications industry.
The T-Mobile data breach was not the first and it will not be the last. So you need to be protected. There are lots of ways that you can protect yourself from data breaches. If you want to learn more, keep reading below.
How to prevent data breach incidents?
You may safeguard yourself from data breaches in a variety of ways. Continue reading if you want to discover more.
- Inform your workers
- Establish and improve processes
- Remote observation
- Data archiving and restoration
- Only keep what you require
- Dispose of after destruction
- Protect tangible data
Because data breaches are so expensive, it is crucial to spend time and money preventing them.
Inform your workers
One of the best methods to avoid data breaches is to combat ignorance. It is crucial to teach your staff how to prevent data from being hacked.
You may assist them to do this by explaining to them how to generate secure passwords, how frequently they should change their passwords, and how to recognize, avoid, and report phishing schemes and other suspicious activities.
Establish and improve processes
Data security standards–related processes can be created and updated regularly. It will be evident from this what your organization expects in terms of statistics. Additionally, by doing this, you’ll be able to remind your staff that you take data seriously and demonstrate to them that they should do the same.
Remote observation
Your network is continuously monitored through remote monitoring.
You may collaborate with a managed IT services company to avoid having to hire IT personnel full-time to watch after your systems.
Data archiving and restoration
Your data may occasionally be maliciously deleted in data breaches. Your data should be regularly backed up so that it can be quickly restored in the event of data loss, server failure, or even a natural disaster.
To prevent you from losing crucial data, your IT team should regularly set up an automatic offsite backup solution.
Only keep what you require
Track the data you save on your machines, and periodically purge what is superfluous. The number of locations where you keep sensitive information should be kept to a minimum, and you should keep track of where each location is.
Keep in mind that your company’s or industry’s data retention rules may call for you to keep data on hand for a specific period.
Dispose of after destruction
Make sure anything that could contain sensitive information has been destroyed appropriately before you discard it.
As an illustration, cross-cut paper files. Use software that is intended to completely erase data from devices like outdated phones, computers, or hard drives. The data is not completely erased by just removing the files or reformatting.
Protect tangible data
Physical acts have the potential to result in data breaches, thus it is crucial to protect all data, even physical files.
Make sure that tangible records are kept in a safe area with access limited to those personnel who require it.
Are you into cybersecurity? Then you should check our article The Role of Cybersecurity in Compliance.
