SCHAUMBURG, Ill.–Experian reported it has suffered a significant data breach with hackers stealing information on up to 15 million consumers. The information that was breached was from customers who had applied to sign up for T-Mobile's service last month.
The company said that anyone who applied for a regular T-Mobile USA postpaid plan between Sept. 1, 2013 and Sept. 16, 2015 might be affected. T-Mobile used Experian to conduct credit checks on its customers.
According to Experian, hackers obtained T-Mobile customer names, addresses, Social Security numbers, birthdays, and even sensitive identification numbers (like a driver's license, military ID or passport number.)
"Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a released statement. "I take our customer and prospective customer privacy VERY seriously."
Experian said hackers broke into its computer system in September and accessed a computer server full of that information. It is not the first time Experian has suffered a breach.
“First and foremost, let me sincerely apologize for everyone affected by this event,” said the company’s CEO in a statement. While we have no indication to date that the data has been used, as soon as we detected the incident, we took immediate action to secure the server, prepare to notify all impacted consumers with guidance on how to protect themselves, notify law enforcement, including the FBI, to assist with their criminal investigation, (and) provide support and help alleviate concerns, we are providing two years of free credit monitoring and identity protection services to anyone impacted.”