Over the weekend, a provocative post appeared in the Full Disclosure section of Insecure.org, a Web site frequented by the hacking community, purportedly offering confidential T-Mobile customer and corporate data to the highest bidder. The anonymous message was signed “pwnmobile_at_safe-mail.net.”
“Like Checkpoint,” the author said, “Tmobile [sic] has been owned for some time. We have everything, their databases, confidental [sic] documents, scripts and programs from their servers, financial documents up to 2009.”
“We already contacted with their competitors,” the author added, “and they didn’t show interest in buying their data — probably because the mails got to the wrong people — so now we are offering them for the highest bidder. Please only serious offers, don’t waste our time.”
The post ends with a lengthy list of data allegedly pulled from more than 500 T-Mobile servers. There is no way, however, to independently verify the validity of the posted information. The operators of the Full Disclosure mailing list warn that as many as 80 percent of the postings are “pure drivel.”
T-Mobile: No Comment
T-Mobile is not offering any specific comment on the situation. However, the company said it is investigating whether a breach occurred.
“The protection of our customers’ information, and the safety and security of our systems, is absolutely paramount at T-Mobile,” the company said. “Regarding the recent claim, we are fully investigating the matter. As is our standard practice, if there is any evidence that customer information has been compromised, we would inform those affected as soon as possible.”
Efforts to contact the company for additional comment were unsuccessful.
Reason for Concern
Nonetheless, T-Mobile has reason to be concerned. Not only are a number of the database names listed highly confidential — customer billing, profiles, etc. — but the company has been hacked before.
Back in 2004, a 21-year-old hacker named Nicolas Jacobsen broke into the T-Mobile…