The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) urges all Hawaii residents who believe they were impacted by the massive data breach announced by T-Mobile in August 2021 to take appropriate steps to protect their information from identity theft.
On August 17th, T-Mobile reported a massive data breach compromising the sensitive personal information of millions of current, former, and prospective T-Mobile customers. The breach impacted more than 53 million individuals, including 223,299 residents of Hawaii. Among other categories of impacted information, millions had their names, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, and driver’s license information compromised.
Recently, a large subset of the information compromised in the breach was discovered for sale on the dark web – a hidden portion of the Internet where cyber criminals buy, sell, and track personal information. Many individuals subsequently received alerts through various identity theft protection services informing them that their information was found online in connection with the T-Mobile breach, confirming the worst: individuals impacted by the breach are at heightened risk for identity theft.
“Given recent developments, Hawaii consumers impacted by the T-Mobile security breach need to take action to protect themselves against identity theft,” said Stephen Levins, executive director of the OCP.
Levins urges anyone who believes they were impacted by the T-Mobile breach to take the following steps:
Monitor your credit. Credit monitoring services track your credit report and alert you whenever a change is made, such as a new account or a large purchase. Most services will notify you within 24 hours of any change to your credit report.
Consider placing a free credit freeze on your credit report. Identity thieves will not be able to open a new credit account in your name while the freeze is in place. You can place a credit freeze by contacting each of the three major credit bureaus:
- Equifax | https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
+1 (888) 766-0008
- Experian | https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
+1 (888) 397-3742
- TransUnion | https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
+1 (800) 680-7289
Place a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert tells lenders and creditors to take extra steps to verify your identity before issuing credit. You can place a fraud alert by contacting any one of the three major credit bureaus.
Visit T-Mobile’s Website. T-Mobile has a dedicated online safety and identity theft protection webpage where you can learn more about common mobile fraud schemes and safety tips.
Additional Resources. If you believe you are a victim of identity theft, go to identitytheft.gov for assistance on how to report it and recover from it.