T-Mobile has confirmed that hackers have stolen files storing information on millions of current and former customers.
The wireless operator launched an investigation after it came to light that someone had been offering to sell 100 million T-Mobile customer records on the dark web. The information, sold for roughly $280,000 in bitcoin, reportedly included names, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, and driver’s license information.
T-Mobile has confirmed the breach and on Tuesday it claimed to have identified the vulnerability used by the attackers to access its servers.
The company also confirmed that some of the stolen files did include personal information, but noted that payment card details or other customer financial information was not compromised as a result of the breach.
The carrier said its preliminary analysis showed that the incident impacted roughly 7.8 million current postpaid customer accounts, as well as more than 40 million records of former and prospective customers. The breach also impacts approximately 850,000 active prepaid customers.
In the case of postpaid customers, the company believes the attackers have not obtained phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information. In the case of prepaid customers, however, the hackers seem to have gained access to names, phone numbers and PINs.
“We have also confirmed that there was some additional information from inactive prepaid accounts accessed through prepaid billing files. No customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information or SSN was in this inactive file,” T-Mobile said.
In response to the breach, T-Mobile is offering two years of free identity protection services to impacted individuals. It has also reset the PINs of impacted prepaid accounts.
The company noted that the names and PINs of Metro by T-Mobile, former Sprint prepaid, or Boost customers were not exposed, as far as it can tell at this point in the investigation.
T-Mobile has disclosed several data breaches over the past years, including in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Related: T-Mobile Outage Mistaken for Massive DDoS Attack on U.S.
Related: T-Mobile Data Breach Hits Over 2 Million Customers
Related: Hackers Accessed Information of T-Mobile Prepaid Customers

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
More from Eduard Kovacs
- Critical Baicells Device Vulnerability Can Expose Telecoms Networks to Snooping
- SecurityWeek Analysis: Over 450 Cybersecurity M&A Deals Announced in 2022
- VMware ESXi Servers Targeted in Ransomware Attack via Old Vulnerability
- High-Severity Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Patched in VMware Workstation
- GoAnywhere MFT Users Warned of Zero-Day Exploit
- UK Car Retailer Arnold Clark Hit by Ransomware
- EV Charging Management System Vulnerabilities Allow Disruption, Energy Theft
- Unpatched Econolite Traffic Controller Vulnerabilities Allow Remote Hacking
Latest News
- Comcast Wants a Slice of the Enterprise Cybersecurity Business
- Critical Baicells Device Vulnerability Can Expose Telecoms Networks to Snooping
- New York Attorney General Fines Vendor for Illegally Promoting Spyware
- SecurityWeek Analysis: Over 450 Cybersecurity M&A Deals Announced in 2022
- 20 Million Users Impacted by Data Breach at Instant Checkmate, TruthFinder
- Cyber Insights 2023 | Zero Trust and Identity and Access Management
- Cyber Insights 2023 | The Coming of Web3
- European Police Arrest 42 After Cracking Covert App
