Google Fi Customers Lose Personal Data to Hackers in the Second Biggest Cyberattack in Months

Google Fi customers suffered a cyberattack leaving personal data exposed to hackers. The security system was compromised with regard to T-Mobile data.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: February 02, 2023

In a recent cyberattack in connection with T-Mobile data, Google Fi customers may have succumbed to a data breach. The American tech leader, Google said that the primary network provider of the cell network got aware of the suspicious activity after verifying a system comprising customer data. The hackers may have stolen the personal data of Google Fi customers in an email sent Monday. But Google asked the customers to take no further action.

It reassured the Fi users that no unauthorized access occurred directly by Google on its own systems or any system that the company oversees. The cybersecurity of the Google Fi system got compromised, which readily made some of the data of users including account status, phone numbers, information on mobile service plans, and SIM card serial numbers.

In the email, the company did not identify T-Mobile specifically as the primary service provider. However, Google Fi is an MVNO with a connection to the U.S. T-Mobile and Cellular networks. But the system did not have personal data such as credit card information, pin numbers, names, passwords, email addresses, and government IDs.

T-Mobile faced the attack for the eighth time since 2018. The data breach may have affected 37 million T-Mobile customers. Previously, T-Mobile, the U.S. wireless carrier said it was running an investigation into the incident of a data breach, the one that could have exposed at least 37 million prepaid and postpaid accounts. The organization also hinted that they had to bear significant costs following the event.

It is less than two years and the second largest cyberattack has occurred within months after T-Mobile consented to improve its data security to settle litigation about an event that took place in 2021, leaving information of around 76.6 million people compromised. The recent cyberattack, the company became aware of the activity on 5 January.

But the breach was contained within a day, assuring that no financial information and sensitive data was exposed. T-Mobile has more than 110 million subscribers to date. It said steps are in process to notify the impacted customers whose basic data such as phone number, email, billing address, or name could have been accessed by hackers.