T-Mobile actually stopped some hackers from stealing customer data

T-Mobile isn’t exactly known for having a stellar track record against hackers, but it seems that the company actually caught a recent cyberattack in progress and shut it down in time. Bloomberg reports that T-Mobile detected suspicious activity in a recent attempt to access customer data and kicked the cyber criminals out before they were able to infiltrate deeper levels of the network.

The report doesn’t name the hackers or the date when the breach occurred, but details are consistent with the recent Salt Typhoon attack in which Chinese hackers targeted US telecom companies — including T-Mobile. Targets of that attack included members of the Trump and Harris campaigns. Hackers successfully breached Verizon, T-Mobile, and Lumen ISPs. China has denied any involvement.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have “T-Mobile swiftly shuts down cyber attack” on my bingo card this month. The company disclosed nine security breaches between 2018 and early 2023 alone, including a massive breach in 2021 that exposed sensitive data of more than 47 million customers and prospective customers. There was another major incident in 2023, too, when a hacker obtained account data from 37 million customers in a breach that went undetected for over a month. You know it’s bad when the FCC tells you to shape up.

T-Mobile isn’t in a big hurry to take credit for this latest effort, though; the company declined to comment on the record about the details of its response to the cyberattack.

Update, November 27th: Added a link to T-Mobile’s official response confirming that it stopped a cyber attack in progress.

Update, November 21st: Added that T-Mobile did not offer a comment on the details of Bloomberg’s report.