T-Mobile's Security is 'Awful' Says Hacker Who Stole Data From 50 Million Customers
T-Mobile recently suffered a significant data breach that saw sensitive data from more than 50 million current, prospective, and former customers stolen.
John Binns, a 21-year-old American who lives in Turkey, told The Wall Street Journal that he is responsible for the attack. Binns said that he discovered an unprotected router in July after scanning T-Mobile's known internet addresses for weak spots.
He used the unprotected router to access T-Mobile's data center located in Washington, where stored credentials provided him access to over 100 servers. He said he initially panicked because he "had access to something big," and went on to claim that T-Mobile's "security is awful."
It took him about a week to sort through the servers to find the personal data on millions of customers, and he downloaded the data on August 4. On August 13, T-Mobile was informed that someone was selling T-Mobile customer data, and T-Mobile confirmed the breach just days later.
T-Mobile has since said that data from more than 50 million customers was accessed. Stolen data includes customer names, dates of birth, SSNs, ID cards, and licenses. The Wall Street Journal took steps to confirm that the hacker selling the data was Binns, using his IRDev online alias.
Binns told The Wall Street Journal that he hacked T-Mobile to "generate noise" and get attention as he had allegedly been the victim of an illegal kidnapping that saw him taken to a fake mental hospital in Germany. Binns would not say whether he had sold any of the data that he stole, and it is not clear if he had accomplices. The Seattle office of the FBI is investigating the hack.
Affected T-Mobile customers can receive two years of free identity protection services through McAfee's ID Theft Protection Service and can implement Account Takeover Protection features.
Popular Stories
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Top Rated Comments