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T-MOBILE DATA BREACH UNDERSCORES IMPORTANCE OF CRISIS MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES
Edward Segal
Senior Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Leadership Strategy
I cover crisis-related news, issues and topics.
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This Feb. 24, 2021 photo shows a T-Mobile store at a shopping mall in
Pittsburgh. T-Mobile says ... [+] about 7.8 million of its current postpaid
customer accounts’ information and approximately 40 million records of former or
prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with the company
were involved in a recent data breach. T-Mobile said Wednesday, Aug. 18, that
customers’ first and last names, date of birth, Social Security numbers, and
driver’s license/ID information were exposed. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
News of the recent T-Mobile data breach that impacted 40 million people
highlights— again—the need for companies and organizations to adopt and follow
best practices for preparing and responding to crisis situations.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
According to Ars Technica, “By some counts, T-Mobile has experienced as many as
six separate data breaches in recent years. They include a hack in 2018 that
gave unauthorized access to customer names, billing ZIP codes, phone numbers,
email addresses, and account numbers. In a breach from last year, hackers
absconded with data including customer names and addresses, phone numbers,
account numbers, rate plans and features, and billing information.”
BEST PRACTICES
DON’T WAIT FOR OTHERS TO DISCLOSE YOUR CRISIS
An important crisis management best practice is to immediately disclose
information about a crisis, and not leave it to others to discover it
themselves. If others — such as news organizations— find and report details of
the crisis before you do, it can raise questions about your failure to announce
the crisis.
News of the cyberattack on T-Mobile was first reported by Vice, not T-Mobile.
The attack was confirmed a day later by the telecommunication company, which did
not provide additional details about the incident at the time.
T-Mobile did not immediately respond to requests to comment for this story.
Joseph Nwankpa is an assistant professor of information systems and analytics at
the Farmer School of Business at Miami University. He noted that, ‘’In this era
of ubiquitous cyberthreats, T-Mobile's delayed reaction in discovering and
disclosing the breach calls to question the effectiveness of its responsible
disclosure program.
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‘’These responsible disclosure programs are designed to be a digital equivalent
of ‘if you see something, say something’ like with the goal of providing clear
reporting guidelines to the public or anyone who stumbles on potential data
breaches or security vulnerabilities,’’ he said.
KEEP PEOPLE POSTED
T-Mobile issued a news release today that was also posted on their website with
the latest information about the data breach.
The company noted in the release that, “We take our customers’ protection very
seriously and we will continue to work around the clock on this forensic
investigation to ensure we are taking care of our customers in light of this
malicious attack. While our investigation is ongoing, we wanted to share these
initial findings even as we may learn additional facts through our investigation
that cause the details above to change or evolve.”
HELP THOSE IMPACTED BY THE CRISIS
CNN reported that, “The company is recommending that all T-Mobile postpaid
customers preemptively change the PINs protecting their accounts, though it said
it has no evidence those PINs have been compromised. Account PINs belonging to
the 850,000 prepaid customers were compromised, however, and T-Mobile said it
has unilaterally reset those PINs as a security precaution.”
T-Mobile said it will offer two years of free credit monitoring to affected
customers.
TAKE STEPS TO PREVENT A CRISIS
Depending on the nature of your business, there are steps you should take now to
help prevent common crisis triggers or mitigate the impact of a crisis.
Kevin Breen, director of cyber threat research at Immersive Labs said, “When it
comes to mitigating the risk of a mega-breach like this, it’s important to place
applications that hold large volumes of data under additional scrutiny in terms
of their security monitoring, patching policies and audit logging. This is even
more vital for public-facing applications. The speed and efficiency with which
an organization identifies and responds to a vulnerability could be the factor
that halts a breach in its footsteps.
"Sadly, there’s nothing new about this attack—and I have no doubt that we’ll see
more of its kind,” Breen predicted. “While no financial information has been
compromised, significant amounts of personal data could now be in the hands of
those who would use it for malicious intent. This particular incident might fade
into the noise of the current new cycle, but there are people who will suffer at
the hands of the fraudsters that now hold their personal information.”
ADVICE FOR BUSINESS LEADERS
A CHALLENGE TO STAY SECURE
Bruce Dahlgren, CEO of MetricStream, said, “As hackers become more
sophisticated, it’s a challenge for companies to stay secure. It’s not a matter
of if a breach is going to happen, but when. Because of this, it is critical for
organizations to have an incident response team comprised of legal, corporate
communications, and IT staff, as well as to have contingency plans in place.
“Additionally, management should conduct regular risk assessments in order to
identify potential gaps and areas where cybersecurity and response plans can be
improved,” he counseled.
“Lastly, response teams need to be aware of data protection and disclosure
regulations that may impact response processes and disclosure details. Having
these in place now will pay dividends down the road, dramatically improving
corporate transparency, market credibility and customer loyalty,” Dahlgren said.
NOTIFY IMMEDIATELY
Miami University’s Nwankpa said,’ ‘’Companies need to avoid the pitfall of
attempting to find all the answers to a potential data breach by surveying the
damage, identifying the attackers, limiting the damage prior to going public,
and notifying the affected parties. Part of the damage limitation process during
the initial response to a breach involves notifying affected parties.
‘’Yet often, we see firms losing public goodwill by delaying the notification in
an attempt to get all the answers before going public,” he observed.
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other
work here.
Edward Segal
I am a crisis management/communication expert, consultant, and author of the
award-winning Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from
Disasters, Scandals,
…
Read More
I am a crisis management/communication expert, consultant, and author of the
award-winning Crisis Ahead: 101 Ways to Prepare for and Bounce Back from
Disasters, Scandals, and Other Emergencies (Nicholas Brealey). Crisis Ahead was
was rated one of best new crisis management books to read in 2020 and 2021— and
one of the best crisis management books of all time — by BookAuthority.org. My
advice and observations are based on my extensive experience helping companies,
organizations, and individuals prevent, manage, and recover from a variety of
crisis situations. I'm the former CEO of two trade associations, a PR consultant
to hundreds of clients, press secretary for Democratic and Republican members of
Congress and political candidates and a consultant for Ogilvy Public Relations
and other PR and advertising agencies.
Read Less
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