crime
Cyber attack on T-Mobile – 37 million customers affected
The T-Mobile logo can be seen at a store in Boston. Hackers have gained access to the data of around 37 million customers of the Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US. photo
© Michael Dwyer/AP/dpa
The US subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom has again become the victim of a hacker attack. According to the company, no highly sensitive customer data was captured according to initial findings.
Hackers have gained access to the data of around 37 million customers of the Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile US. The company announced this on Thursday after the US stock market closed. The cyber attack was therefore discovered on January 5th. With the help of external experts, the source of the attack was found and stopped within a day of becoming known. The investigations are still ongoing, but there is currently no evidence that it was possible to penetrate the system or network.
Nevertheless, the US mobile operator, which belongs to the Bonn Telekom group, did not rule out that the incident, which began on or around November 25, could result in high costs. T-Mobile shares initially fell by a good two percent in after-hours trading in the US. According to the company, however, it is not about highly sensitive customer data. According to preliminary findings, phone numbers, birth details and billing addresses may have been stolen, but no passwords, credit card or social security numbers.
Based on the previous investigation, customer accounts and financial data were not directly at risk, according to T-Mobile. But the investigations continued. The company has repeatedly been targeted by cybercriminals in recent years. In 2021, T-Mobile was the victim of an attack in which, according to the company at the time, the data of more than 40 million former customers and prospective buyers fell into the hands of hackers. In 2015, an attack on the servers of a service provider stole sensitive data from over 15 million T-Mobile customers.