Database of 15 Million Consumers Hacked at Experian
Did you apply for a new post paid connection from T-Mobile last month? If yes, then you have cause for worry as hackers have accessed data of nearly 15 million consumers who had applied for a phone connection with T-mobile. Experian happens to be the vendor appointed by T-mobile to run credit checks on consumers that apply for its post paid connection. This theft of data containing sensitive information about the consumers including their Email IDs, names, addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and dates of births. This incident has left T-Mobile livid and it is planning to sue Experian for alleged breach of security.
Who is going to be affected with this hack?
Experian is one of the three credit rating agencies of the country and it handles the data of many more millions of citizens across the length and breadth of the country. In a statement that was meant to serve as damage control, a spokesperson of the agency clarified that this was an isolated incident where hackers accessed data stored in one of the many servers of the company. This hack, which was discovered by Experian on 15 September, is limited to only those people who had applied for a postpaid connection from T-Mobile last month between 1-15 September.. However, this clarification failed to pacify the authorities at T-Mobile who say that they will seriously review their contract with Experian as they cannot take a risk with the personal information of their customers in future.
T-Mobile’s Response
While Experian is offering all help and assistance to all those whose names and other information has been accessed by the hackers, it is hard to tell now if this data has been used in any inappropriate manner or not. All affected individuals have been notified about this incident by Experian. They are also being offered two year free service for running credit checks as compensation from the company. If you applied for T-Mobile connection and have already been notified by Experian about theft of your information, you should remain alert and cautious in your financial transactions at banks and retail shops in near future.
T-Mobile has threatened to cancel its contract with Experian that happens to be a FTSE 100 company. Experian suffered biggest one day loss of nearly 4% on Friday at the share market after the incident was widely reported in media and internet.
