T-Mobile USA Sells Phones Without Customer Consent
In March 2011, T-Mobile USA began selling phones in the United States without customer consent.
The breach, which exposed the names and Social Security numbers and dates of birth of some 40,000 customers, showed T-Mobile was selling phones without their consent. This caused immediate concern among the telecom industry.
The details of the breach were discovered in March 2011 through a Google search. Justice Department’s Computer Security and Network Management Unit, an arm of the Department of Justice, has begun an inquiry into the incident, which is related to the “Mobile Identity Theft” investigation.
According to Reuters, the probe began in March 2009 and has lasted 18 months. The investigation has concluded that T-Mobile and T-Mobile USA did, in fact, sell phones without customer consent, and the matter is being addressed as a civil violation case, Reuters notes.
“In this case, we have found that the FBI had the specific surveillance that it needed to determine the identity theft issue, which is a crime,” said John C. Bell, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Criminal Division. “We expect there will be civil penalties to be assessed.
Although the United States Department of Justice investigation found that T-Mobile sold phones without customer consent, it is unclear why the telecoms allegedly sold phones without customer consent, and no other country has been subject to similar privacy breaches. A number of countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have experienced privacy breaches since the introduction of cellular telephony.
Although the federal probe has concluded that T-Mobile and T-Mobile USA sold phones without customer consent, it is unclear why the telecoms allegedly sold phones without customer consent, and no other country has been subject to similar privacy breaches.
“We are looking into this incident as a civil violation,” said a senior Justice Department official. The civil violation investigation has not yet been completed.
T-Mobile says a cybercrime attack against its network exposed credit application data.
“This could have exposed to malicious hackers the credit card and bank account information of millions of credit and debit card customers,” said Chief Information Security Officer Susan Hart, in statement Tuesday. “We have been working for months to investigate this issue and it appears the breach was not malicious. We are working diligently on a solution to help prevent recurrence of this type of breach. We are confident that we will quickly identify the cyber attacks that have impacted our network and provide a full and complete accounting as we work to ensure that all devices are secure. ” “We are confident that we will quickly identify the cyber attacks that have impacted our network and provide a full and complete accounting as we work to ensure that all devices are secure. ” She added, “We are very sorry for this incident and would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the inconvenience experienced by affected customers and for the distress caused by the attack. ” Hart apologized for the inconvenience, noting the company is working with federal regulators to ensure that all affected customers have adequate access to credit applications. Last month, the Department of Commerce’s Federal Trade Commission investigated T-mobile’s practices for failing to protect its customers’ data. It alleged that T-mobile failed to notify customers about the vulnerability of its online store. The FTC also alleged that T-Mobile had an inadequate security team and offered no protections against cyber attacks. The FTC stated that T-mobile allowed the attackers to take millions of customer‘s credit and debit card information. This is a major security issue for T-mobile. Hart stated that at this point the “information that can be used in a theft of a credit card is the information that contains the customer’s personal information, including the payment card number, expiration date, account number, security code, security token and the merchant account number. ” Hart also stated that in some cases, the attackers may have accessed data that was not previously discovered. This means that T-Mobile might have inadvertently exposed customers’ credit card information directly to criminals. “We are sorry that we have had to take this action and apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused our customers,” she concluded. T-Mobile issued the following statement: “We have been working for months to investigate this issue and it appears the breach was not malicious. We are working diligently on a solution to help prevent recurrence of this type of breach.
T-Mobile Prepaid customers and account takeover protection.
Description: A company that just announced a new prepaid service with its own brand of tablets and smartphones might need new protection against account takeover.
Security is a key ingredient in mobile devices. Just about every device that has Wi-Fi is locked down in some fashion, with password access being the primary access. Mobile security depends on user account lockout, which is a security measure that limits any unauthorized actions that a user can take on a mobile device without logging out of his or her account.
T-Mobile prepaid customers and account takeover protection. | Computer Security: A key ingredient in mobile devices security relies on the protection given to mobile device user accounts. When an account is locked out, it can’t be used. When account lockout occurs, a user is rendered unable to use his or her account on the internet, but it cannot be used. This is important to remember when using a mobile device that has no password, the user account cannot be used on the internet, and the mobile device itself cannot be used.
The security of user accounts cannot be completely relied upon in a mobile device, as this can allow someone to take over the device and potentially compromise the security of the wireless network, which is the wireless network’s primary means of access to the mobile device.
In its announcement of its new T-Mobile prepaid service, T-Mobile is saying that the security of the network would be enhanced because of the protection of the account lockout.
The T-Mobile prepaid service is being rolled out in select markets of Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia. The service will allow customers to use their prepaid balance for one or multiple devices that they own.
Customers will be able to use their prepaid balance to pay for two or three devices simultaneously. The first device must be locked out and the balance used on the second device. They can also use the first device but can only use the second device.
Why would you remove your phone number from online accounts?
Tips of the Day in Computer Security
How to fix: The Windows command prompt works with multiple commands. The command ‘startp’ uses the windows command prompt rather than the shell. This is because the Windows command prompt uses its own input device. See how to type in the command prompt. To run a program that requires a command prompt, run it as administrator. For example, to run Outlook Express, type the command “C:\Program Files\Outlook Express”.
How to use: The CMD Windows Shortcut command works like the Windows command prompt in that it runs a program rather than the shell. All the command prompt uses is a keyboard shortcut. If you are just messing around with your windows command prompt, you should know that there are shortcuts for everything in the cmd window. You can hit cmd+b (command prompt) to move to the command prompt. You can hit cmd+b again to bring back to your command prompt. There are also command prompt windows that run other windows programs.
Here are some tips and tricks to get you started using your computer from scratch.
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Spread the loveIn March 2011, T-Mobile USA began selling phones in the United States without customer consent. The breach, which exposed the names and Social Security numbers and dates of birth of some 40,000 customers, showed T-Mobile was selling phones without their consent. This caused immediate concern among the telecom industry. The details of the…