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AT&T finally acknowledges the 2021 data breach it originally said wasn't its fault
Data from 2019 and earlier may have been compromised
When you consent to providing your personal information to a company and it experiences a data breach, you might fear the worst. Depending on how much data you made available, your sensitive information could eventually wind up circulating in dark corners of the web, increasing your risk of identity theft. Practically every carrier has faced data breaches, and AT&T is no exception. With the personal data of millions at its fingertips, all of its customers expect it to keep their information safe — but, as we're learning now, that wasn’t the case back in 2021.
Mint Mobile confirms recent data breach that compromised user info
Names, phone numbers, and more were exposed
Data breaches can have a devastating impact on any company, depending on the scale and the importance of the data compromised. While modern-day tech companies try to safeguard their infrastructure from such incidents, attackers always tend to find a way to breach their systems. Mobile virtual network operator or MVNO, Mint Mobile, is the newest victim of a data breach, the company confirmed over the weekend.
Rumors of another T-Mobile data breach have been debunked by the carrier
Employee data was rumored to have been leaked this time around
When it comes to your personal information, there are a number of tools you can use to ensure that it’s protected on the internet. However, what happens to your data once it’s in the hands of a company is not always up to you, since a breach can expose your information unexpectedly without the company’s consent. T-Mobile is one mobile service provider that has become almost as renowned for its data breaches as its promotional deals. After an app glitch showed incorrect billing info earlier this week, a separate rumor began circulating on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the carrier had suffered yet another breach. However, T-Mobile has now debunked this report as false.
T-Mobile app glitch exposes users' billing details to other customers
Waking up to someone else's bill isn't a dream, it's a personal data nightmare
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Data breaches are sadly becoming all too common. Relying on big companies to protect our personal details is now a topic of concern. T-Mobile, a leading US telecom provider, has recently been under scrutiny for multiple data security incidents. Adding to its list of challenges, the firm's primary app accidentally revealed users' personal data to other customers.
Data thieves expose millions of AT&T customers' names and phone numbers
The telco says attackers targeted a third-party vendor
Data breaches and hacks seem to be a normal part of our online lives by this point. If it's tied to a server storing the personal info of millions of users, malicious actors can (and will) get past its defenses and harvest all that data. We've seen news about these breaches against carriers, social networks, and everything in between. And while the fallout is rarely that bad, there's always some cleaning up to do on our part. Now, we're hearing about a new data breach that is affecting millions of wireless subscribers.
This data leak was so bad, the government is stepping up to help
This isn't your typical T-Mobile data breach
It's a pretty sad fact, but it's a fact nonetheless that data breaches are fairly commonplace these days. Mobile carriers, which hold plenty of personal, identifiable information, are common targets and T-Mobile has been the one to be hit time after time. Affected customers are usually told to change their passwords and sign up for credit monitoring. But it seems like Australia is making more of a deal about a recent hack attack on telecom operator Optus.
New Google Play system update tells you when a data breach may have compromised your accounts
The update also enhances the Google Wallet app
In the first week of September, Google released the Play system updates for the month, including improvements to Play Services and the Play Store. Those updates added a few new Wear OS-related features for smartwatches and made the Google Kids Space more user-friendly. Both of these services now have a few more additions that improve your experience, including a feature that alerts you to passwords that may not be secure anymore.
Samsung is alerting users it got hacked, but the fallout doesn't sound too bad
The cybersecurity incident potentially exposed customer data (but not any juicy stuff)
What's the longest you've gone between getting notifications that your info's been involved in a data breach? A couple years? Not even six months? Sometimes it feels like every time we go to check our inboxes, there's another message about hackers penetrating some inadequately secured server and exfiltrating with our data. We're not even two weeks removed from learning about Plex's recent breach, exposing emails and usernames, and today we're learning about one that has the potential to affect a whole lot more people, as Samsung announces a cybersecurity intrusion of its own.
Twitter confirms data breach that affected millions of accounts
The company says it's patched the zero-day exploit used in the attack
Zero-day exploits are a menace to the tech industry with web browsers — Chrome and Firefox — being particularly vulnerable to these threats. Although Google is keeping up with zero-day detections, malicious actors are always seeking out security loopholes in all sorts of services. Twitter was the target of one such attack in December 2021, with the individual responsible claiming to have obtained key information from 5.4 million accounts on the platform. The company has now officially confirmed that the attack happened and that the zero-day exploit that was used to make it happen has been patched.
Police think they found the mastermind behind all the recent Lapsus$ hacks
Who had their money on 'gang of teenagers?'
The hacker group Lapsus$ has quickly risen to prominence in the cyber-crime world for breaching major firms and bragging about it online. It's responsible for last year’s attack on T-Mobile, the subsequent breaking into Nvidia in February, and attacks on Samsung and Ubisoft earlier this month. Following the most recent incursion against tech giant Microsoft, the group's luck may be starting to run out, and a new report suggests that the individuals behind the atrocious acts have just been nabbed.
Lapsus$'s latest confirmed cybercrime victims are Microsoft and authentication services provider Okta
The hacking group is on a roll
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Cybercrime is the bane of the internet. Time and time again we’ve seen companies fall prey to hackers. T-Mobile was attacked last year, while Nvidia and Samsung have been under threat in recent times. Some of these breaches result in little to no data exposure, while others end in potentially devastating data losses. The latter might be the case in the latest compromises of Microsoft and popular authentication services provider Okta Inc.
The FCC might let your carrier notify you sooner about its next big data breach
But will there be any bite to its bark?
Data breaches are an inevitable facet of modern life. There is no security so robust that a hacker can’t penetrate it. What matters is how we mitigate that risk. Unfortunately, we can’t mitigate the risks that we aren’t aware of. That’s why it’s crucial for businesses that regularly handle sensitive information (like telecom carriers) to inform customers when their data's been involved in a breach as early as possible. The FCC is now signaling that it wants to make sure carriers are doing all they can to keep customers informed, and is considering some new rules for making that happen.
T-Mobile couldn't make it to the end of the year without suffering another data breach
Notices have already gone out to affected users
Many of us have come to expect data breaches as an everyday part of life. After all, your account information is only as safe as the companies you're doing business with, and every passing year makes it increasingly evident how little attention is paid to such matters. T-Mobile already suffered one of the year's most notable data breaches over the summer, and just days before the end of 2021, it's reportedly been hit with another.
Apparently Robinhood's as good at securing user data as you are at picking hot stocks
Which is to say, not very good at all
It's been a rough year for Robinhood, the ever-popular stock trading service that makes it easy for anyone to buy and sell shares. After exploding in popularity during GameStop's spike — yes, believe it or not, that was this year — it endured plenty of controversy and user anger to successfully go public a few months ago. It seems the app can't escape controversy, as it fell victim to a security breach late last week.
Heads up: Verizon's Visible MVNO accounts are getting hacked left and right
Users are reporting account hijacks, address changes, and unauthorized purchases
If you aren't interested in shelling out for a full carrier phone plan, maybe MVNOs like Visible are able to fit the bill instead. Visible is owned by Verizon and competes primarily against AT&T's Cricket Wireless and T-Mobile's Metro, and has found popularity offering unlimited data plans, eSIM support, and 5G connectivity for relatively affordable prices. But if you're a Visible customer, you might want to change your password now: Reports are piling up online of people complaining that their accounts have been hijacked.
Twitch swears no login details were exposed during huge data leak
Streamers will have to request new stream keys out of an abundance of caution
Twitch's huge leak consisting of more than 100GB of source code and payment data came as a surprise to everyone this week, including the company itself. The Amazon subsidiary has since started investigating and is looking into the security implications of the incident. Thankfully, the company hasn't found evidence that any login data has been leaked so far, but out of an abundance of caution, all stream keys have been reset.
Twitch.tv just got leaked in its entirety, here’s what you should do
Source code, payouts, upcoming features, and potentially even passwords can be found in the 125GB dump
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It looks like popular gaming-focused streaming platform Twitch.tv has some troubling days, months, or maybe even years ahead of it. According to Video Games Chronicle, the entirety of the website’s code and internal documents have been leaked online on 4chan as part of a 125GB torrent dump on Wednesday. It’s still unclear if user data is also affected, but given the extent of the leak, we wouldn’t be surprised.
T-Mobile attempts to assuage subscriber fears in wake of historic data breach
Do you still feel comfortable as a T-Mobile subscriber?
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It seems like we can't go a week without hearing about another massive security breach at a mega-corporation. This week's shocker comes courtesy of T-Mobile, at least according to one self-reported hacker claiming to sell the company's customer data. T-Mobile says it's "investigating" the possible theft of data from over 100 million people. If true, it would be the fourth notable data breach from T-Mobile in the last four years.
T-Mobile rounds out this awful year with another data breach, affecting hundreds of thousands of subscribers
The cherry on top of this stupid sundae that's as magenta as it can be
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T-Mobile has confirmed to Android Police it has shut down a data breach operation that may have harvested a small group of customers' phone numbers, number of lines per account, and call diagnostic metrics. Customers who may have been affected were alerted via text message yesterday and told that the event took place in November.
Passwords are an integral part of the internet, but also, they're terrible. From your parents forgetting them every time they try to log in, to getting compromised in the latest data breach, authenticating with a bunch of random text just isn't that great of an option. Luckily, Dashlane has announced two new plans to help families manage their personal security and privacy online.