Experian slumps after T-Mobile US customers' info breached in hack
T-Mobile customers and potential customers in the US are among the 15m people who may have had their private information exposed after credit agency Experian was hacked.
London-listed shares in Experian slumped as a result and by 0900 BST, were down 4.5% at 1,027p.
Information from the hack includes names, addresses, social security, driver’s licence and passport numbers. Although the licence and passport numbers were in an encrypted field, Experian said that encryption may have also been compromised.
Experian said it immediately notified law enforcement authorities, adding that there is no evidence so far the data has been used inappropriately.
The company said in a statement that the hack affects “those who applied for T-Mobile USA postpaid services or device financing from September 1, 2013 through September 16, 2015”. Experian said the breach did not affect its consumer credit database.
T-Mobile uses Experian to check the credit of those applying for phone plans and financing for devices.
Shore Capital said this was “an important incident, which needs a prompt and strong response and, as much as possible, future prevention”.
It added that the worst outcome for Experian might be a fine.