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T-Mobile Admits Mobile Phone Customer Data Breach
Mobile phone network T-Mobile has admitted its staff handed over millions of customer mobile phone records to third party dealers, who then sold the records on to other phone companies.
A spokesman for T-Mobile stated the records had been passed “without our knowledge”. This security breach came to light after T-Mobile contacted Christopher Graham, the information commissioner whose job it is to safeguard personal information.
Mr Graham and his team launched an investigation and are preparing a prosecution against those T-Mobile staff members who sold the customer data.
To begin with, Mr Graham did not want to reveal the identity of the mobile phone company concerned in case it interfered with the prosecution. However, after the phone companies Orange, Virgin, Vodafone, 3 and O2 all confirmed it was not them, T-Mobile admitted to the breach.
Speaking to the BBC, Michael Wills, Justice Minister said there was a “strong case” for bringing in prison sentences to prevent people illegally selling personal details to third parties.
Mr Graham said: “Many people will have wondered why and how they are being contacted by someone they do not know just before their existing phone contract is about to expire.”
He added: “We are considering the evidence with a view to prosecuting those responsible...But, we will only be able to do this if blaggers and others who trade in personal data face the threat of a prison sentence...This is not just about mobile phone companies...Personal data has value and there are people out there exploiting it.”
A spokesman for T-Mobile said: “T-Mobile takes the protection of customer information seriously. When it became apparent that contract renewal information was being passed on to third parties without our knowledge, we alerted the Information Commissioner's Office.”
T-Mobile news posted by Marilyn on 18 November 2009
Stock Tickers: DT
Comments
John Pooley, The Data Partnership
T-Mobile has been unfortunate on this occasion, but companies such as these have to put their trust within the technical people that work within their organisation who have access to such information.
The people that have this responsibility should be vetted thoroughly and not have full access to this kind of information on their own. Those people guilty of selling this data obviously have no regard for people's personal information and are oblivious to the impact this type of theft has on both the company and consumers in general; consequentially they should be punished for their actions.
Comment posted by John Pooley, The Data Partnership on 19/11/2009 11:36:03
Re:John Pooley, The Data Partnership
The effect on the industry will be greater given the amount of publicity this story has attracted and further emphasis will be put onto those companies that hold such data to tighten up their security so that this doesn't happen again.
The general public will react in the worst possible way, conscious that there are far more personal bits of information held on them, such as financial information which they would not want to fall into the wrong hands or be shared outside of where the information should be held.
Identity fraud has been a big topic in the past and this is another large blow to the industry which we could all do without.
Comment posted by John Pooley on 19/11/2009 15:16:25
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