T-Mobile's latest incident is not an isolated case as an increasing number of businesses are reporting data breaches including those in India which has seen 5 such incidents so far this year. A hacker informed VICE that they stole confidential data of 100 million users of T-Mobile, according to its report. The seller in a chat with Motherboard, VICE’s platform which covers tech, revealed that the data contained details like social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver license information. Cyber attacks have increased dramatically during the pandemic as lockdowns caused by COVID-19 forced a rapid increase in the adoption of digital tech. Data breaches are the second-most common form of cyber attacks as the stolen information fetches a lucrative price on the dark web. It results in acute financial loss while denting the reputation of businesses. A data breach also violates the privacy of individuals who can lose their sensitive data, the consequences of which can be damaging. How did it all unfold? Motherboard reported that it came across a post in an underground forum that claimed that it was “selling a mountain of data”. The post did not mention the name of the company which owned the data. It established contact with the seller who divulged, in an online chat, that the data belonged to T-Mobile USA. They added that the data was obtained by compromising multiple servers of T-Mobile. The seller demanded 6 bitcoin which translates to $270,000 at the prevailing market…
