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Experian Breached, 15 Million T-Mobile Customer's Data Exposed
New submitter Yuuki! writes: The Washington Post reports that T-Mobile's Credit Partner, Experian, has been breached revealing names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver's license and passport numbers for any customer who has applied for device financing or even services from T-Mobile which required a credit check. Both parties were quick to point out that no no credit card or banking data was stolen as part of the attack. The attack started back in September 2013 and was only just discovered on September 16, 2015. Both Experian and T-Mobile have posted statements on their websites and Experian is offering credit for two free years of identity resolution services and credit monitoring in the wake of the breach.
As an identity theft victim, let me say that "no credit card or banking data was stolen" means nothing. With name, address, SSN, and birth date compromised (as well as driver's license and passport numbers), anyone can now open new lines of credit in the names of any of the 15 million people whose information was accessed. And the two years of "credit monitoring" will do almost nothing. Fraud alerts won't either - those are voluntary.
My recommendation if you are one of the 15 million people is to freeze your credit. This will stop ANYONE from opening a new line of credit under your name unless you first thaw your credit file. It's a royal pain in the rear when you need to do things like refinance a loan, but it's better than having a collections agency banging down your door because you owe $5,000 on a credit card that "you" opened.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Experian partitioned clients apart from one another. The breach hit their T-Mobile systems, which is why they are mentioning it only affects T-Mobile customers. But, you are right not to trust Experian, if it happened to one of their systems it could be happening as we speak to any other of their clients. It could also be happening to any of the other credit partners or banks as well and we'll find out in the coming years. My father used to work for a large bank, he would always tell me stories of breaches that occurred like people faking checks who were from Nigeria, etc. And, I asked why the banks weren't more proactive with their security procedures. He said it was because they do a cost analysis on and determine that there is an acceptable amount of risk, because securing your accounts is costly compared to the losses. I think that as these breaches increase in frequency in the digital age, that cost benefit analysis graph is going to turn upside down and not look as rosy anymore.