Mobile communications firm T-Mobile sees 37 million customers' data stolen

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - T-Mobile saw 37 million of its customers' data stolen in a hacking incident, the mobile telecommunications firm said in a filing late Thursday.

Approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customers' data were obtained through the company's application programming interface without authorization on or around Nov. 25, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company said it identified the hacker on Jan. 5 and an investigation is still ongoing.

"The malicious activity appears to be fully contained at this time, and there is currently no evidence that the bad actor was able to breach or compromise our systems or our network," it said.

The hacker has obtained crucial data -- name, billing address, email, phone number, date of birth, T-Mobile account number of the customers -- in addition to information such as the number of lines on the account and plan features, it said.

Customers' payment card information, social security numbers, tax IDs, driver's license or other government ID numbers, passwords and PINs or other financial account information were not exposed, it added.

Although the company said it does not expect the incident to have a material effect on operations, it said it may incur significant expenses due to it.

T-Mobile shares opened Friday at $142.41 on the Nasdaq, down almost 1.9% from the previous close of $145.14, but later recovered to $144.72 at 11.00 a.m. EDT.