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Hackers Steal T-Mobile Customer Data, Including Passwords
Another day, another major security breach. This time, a cellular carrier was the target, and hackers took off with the personal data of two million users. The breach affected slightly less than 3% of T-Mobile’s 77 million customers. The affected data included names, email addresses, encrypted passwords and more, but not financial details or Social Security numbers. T-Mobile is contacting victims by text message, but if you’re a T-Mobile customer, you should change your password regardless. As always, we recommend using a password manager like 1Password or LastPass to generate a different strong password for every Web site.
So yesterday I got a text from T-mobile saying that “your personal data may have been captured”. I was still trying to figure out if this was some kind of scam, when it was confirmed. Apparently, I’m one of the lucky 2 million T-mobile customers to now witness what it means that in the US companies have next to zero liability for their customers’ personal data.
I have the 200 MB per month for free plan on my iPad and no other plan with T-Mobile. When I tried to log in at the T-Mobile web site using a Macintosh, T-Mobile said it sent a verification code to a telephone number associated with the iPad, but the iPad did not display anything and it received no message from T-Mobile. There was no other verification method offered. How can I access my T-Mobile account from the Macintosh? (I believe I could change my password or do other things from the iPad, but I want to know how to access the account from the Macintosh.) Thanks.
I had figured that I was not one of the affected customers because I had not received a text message, but if I don’t receive the verification message, it makes me think I wouldn’t receive a text message notifying me of the security breach.