Mint Mobile Suffered a Data Breach

The US-based telecommunication firm Mint Mobile has announced that it has suffered a data violation which has let several telephone numbers be transferred to other carriers and possible access to user data. 

A threat actor ported contact information for a “small” number of Mint Mobile subscribers on another carrier without authorization. An email regarding the data breach was sent to affected subscribers this weekend between 8th June to 10th June. 

In contrast to the ported number, Mint Mobile further revealed that an unauthorized individual may also have access to confidential information about the customer, including the call history, names, emails, credentials. 

“Between June 8, 2021, and June 10, 2021, a very small number of Mint Mobile subscribers’ phone numbers, including yours, were temporarily ported to another carrier without permission,” Mint Mobile disclosed. 

They instantaneously reversed processes and restored user service, but some information might include one’s name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, login information, international details of calls. Also, subscription features must have been possibly accessed by an unauthorized individual. 

Although Mint Mobile didn’t suggest how the threat actor got access to information from subscribers based on the accessed data, it becomes obvious that actors probably had hacked or compromised user accounts for the usage of a Mint Mobile app to manage customers. 

Since the threats can be exploited by the actors with a Mint Mobile password, modification in the password is strongly encouraged. 

In addition, the amount of porting attempts, including phishing, may have been leveraged by threat actors or to gain access to 2-factor authentication codes delivered by text messages. 

Furthermore, Mint Mobile is warning affected users to “protect other accounts that use your phone number for validation purposes and to reset account passwords.” 

USCellular revealed a similar incident in January following threat actors scamming employees into downloading software providing remote access to devices of the organization. This remote access is exploited by hackers to obtain subscribers’ details by using customer relationship management (CRM) software and port their numbers.