According to the company, the stolen data included names, birth dates, Social Security numbers and driver’s license information. In most cases, the company said, “no phone numbers, account numbers, [personal identification numbers], passwords, or financial information were compromised.” However, some 850,000 customers with prepaid accounts had their names, phone numbers and account PINs exposed, T-Mobile revealed. Social Security numbers are widely used by the federal government, banks, investment companies, government benefit programs and insurers to verify identity. For those whose phone numbers were also exposed, there’s at least one more malign possibility: a SIM-swap attack. But too many sites encourage you make that second factor a text to your phone number, which encourages SIM swap fraud.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 19, 2021 01:52 UTC