T-Mobile Investigating Claims of Data Breach on Online Forum

(Bloomberg) -- T-Mobile USA Inc. is investigating the validity of claims of a data breach that is said to involve personal data from more than 100 million people, some of which is up for sale in exchange for bitcoin.

“We are aware of claims made in an underground forum and have been actively investigating their validity,” a spokesperson for the Bellevue, Washington-based wireless carrier said. “We do not have any additional information to share at this time.”

The company is looking into a post on a forum that claims to be selling personal data related to more than 100 million people, information that includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique identifier numbers, and driver license information, according to a report Sunday from Vice Media’s Motherboard technology-news site. The company’s total customer count is 104.8 million, according to a second-quarter earnings release.

The forum post doesn’t specifically name T-Mobile, but according to Motherboard, the seller said it was obtained from T-Mobile servers. On the forum, the seller is asking for 6 bitcoin -- approximately $270,000 -- for a portion of the data that contains 30 million social security numbers and driver licenses, and they are privately selling the rest of the data, the report said.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.