[HN Gopher] T-Mobile investigating claims of 100M customer data ...
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       T-Mobile investigating claims of 100M customer data breach
        
       Author : hourislate
       Score  : 49 points
       Date   : 2021-08-15 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | cascom wrote:
       | I feel like companies like this should have to register a data
       | breach like this in a national register, and then should someone
       | become a victim of identity theft, the companies on that register
       | associated with that person should bear the costs associated with
       | that theft (importantly without the victim having to show that it
       | was a direct result of that breach). E.g. John Smith
       | ss#123-45-6789 (T-mobile, Experian) has a false refund filed in
       | his name, $10k in legal costs associated with clearing his name,
       | t-mobile and experian each owe him $5k...
       | 
       | Until companies are held accountable for the negative
       | externalities they are causing, this won't end.
        
         | slg wrote:
         | Plus money for time and stress this causes. Often people won't
         | be responsible for huge financial outlays once these issues are
         | resolved, but it can take countless hour and an unmeasurable
         | about of stress to get there.
        
           | dheera wrote:
           | Yes this. Every hour on the phone is an hour less salary for
           | many people.
        
         | maxerickson wrote:
         | You shouldn't become a victim when a bank opens a fraudulent
         | account.
         | 
         | The law shouldn't be that someone else has to pay the costs,
         | the law should be that you tell them to prove it was you that
         | acted to open an account and they go pound sand if they can't
         | do that.
        
           | jjeaff wrote:
           | I agree. Surely there are cases where people have sued the
           | bank or whatever provider for opening an account in their
           | name. It seems like I should just be able to send them a
           | certified letter that says no, i didn't open that account,
           | please close and correct your credit reporting unless you
           | have proof otherwise. If you don't comply I'll see you in my
           | nearest small claim court. Seems like it would be an open and
           | shut case.
        
           | acdha wrote:
           | Yes - "identity theft" in common usage has been a
           | phenomenally successful effort by financial companies to
           | shift the cost of their negligence to the consumer.
        
         | ljm wrote:
         | Running with this idea, then as a customer, John Smith
         | shouldn't have to even think about 10k worth of legal costs to
         | clear his name. It should be cleared for him.
         | 
         | Basically multiple layers of regulation in the form of consumer
         | protection laws that put the onus on businesses to be
         | accountable for what they do. You can't blame the victim for
         | having their identity stolen just because they chose T-Mobile
         | over a competitor, or expect them to fight the case in court
         | (which most people won't do because it's too expensive).
        
         | jalino23 wrote:
         | then this national register gets breached what now
        
           | cascom wrote:
           | They add their name right next to t-mobile's
        
         | jabroni_salad wrote:
         | The HHS keeps a list for healthcare orgs, actually:
         | https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf
         | 
         | A lot of incidents get reported to the state attorney general
         | offices that the customers reside in, as well, but that is less
         | convenient to keep an eye on since there are 50 of them.
         | 
         | These don't really make the news because there are just too
         | many of them to keep up with. One of my clients recently had to
         | send breach notifications to all their customers and it did not
         | even make the local papers. This is a town of 20k people where
         | nothing ever happens and apparently that wasn't enough to waste
         | ink on.
         | 
         | The takeaway here is that there is infinite work available for
         | security incident responders, if you are looking for a change
         | of pace.
        
       | contingencies wrote:
       | T-Mobile runs billing on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdocs
        
       | caconym_ wrote:
       | The data from the Equifax breach, as bad as that breach was (and
       | as criminally derelict in its duties our government was in
       | extracting meaningful accountability from them) does not seem to
       | have made it onto the black market.
       | 
       | If they're already selling the data, this one could be a lot
       | worse in practice.
        
       | ummonk wrote:
       | Is there any evidence this isn't a scam? Surely if it were real,
       | the purported hacker would have already publshed a subsample to
       | prove it?
        
       | malwarebytess wrote:
       | As opposed to the intentional breach earlier this year that they
       | gave customers only one month to opt-out of?
       | 
       | https://fortune.com/2021/03/09/t-mobile-sprint-metro-data-pr...
        
       | rafale wrote:
       | Got my t-mobile SIM hijacked and the hackers changed my email,
       | then tried to get access to my Coinbase account. Thank god I was
       | using a 2FA app for the latter.
       | 
       | To this day I don't know how the hackers did it. Thru social
       | engineering on phone? In person at an agency with fake id? Or a
       | corrupt insider working at T-mobile.
       | 
       | This happened after the Ledger hack. My SSN was also leaked in
       | the Equifax hack. This experience made me realize how much of a
       | joke the concept of "identity" is in our society. It can be
       | bought and stolen like any asset.
        
         | arkadiyt wrote:
         | Most carriers, including T-Mobile, support a "NOPORT" feature
         | to disallow porting your phone number:
         | 
         | https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywa3dv/t-mobile-has-a-secret...
        
           | netsec_burn wrote:
           | When you say most carriers, which ones are you specifically
           | referring to?
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | arboghast wrote:
       | Doesn't surprise me considering their POS systems have regular
       | users (employees) as local admins.
        
         | koolba wrote:
         | Does POS refer to "point of sale" of "piece of shit"?
        
           | kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote:
           | Both, apparently.
        
       | jondwillis wrote:
       | low quality post: can't wait for my two free years of Experian.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-15 23:00 UTC)