On August 27, T-Mobile's CEO updated his comments

T-Mobile posted an update yesterday (August 17) regarding the most recent data breach While the company seems to be trying to reassure people, it is hard to put a positive spin on this news

According to T-Mobile, personal account information of about 49 million current, former, and prospective T-Mobile customers was stolen, not the 100 million that hackers claimed on Internet forums this weekend

Regardless of how many millions of people had their T-Mobile data hacked, the important thing is this: anyone who has ever signed up for a T-Mobile postpaid account must assume their name, address, date of birth, and social security number have been completely compromised

You have to consider that someone could use that information to open an account in your name, sell your Social Security number, obtain an ID card in your name, or use your name while under arrest

If you have ever had or signed up for a T-Mobile postpaid account, here is what you need to do (We'll get to T-Mobile's prepaid customers in a moment)

Finally - and this is not something I say lightly - consider dropping T-Mobile and switching to a wireless carrier that will properly protect your personal information This is the fourth or fifth major T-Mobile data breach in the past three years, and as the company's track record shows, it will not be the last

T-Mobile said in a post yesterday (August 17) that it "can confirm that some of T-Mobile's data has been compromised"

Approximately 78 million current T-Mobile postpaid customers, "just over 40 million" former postpaid customers, and prospective customers who applied for postpaid accounts had their full name, date of birth, social security number, and driver's license or ID number compromised

On the bright side, "there is no indication that the data contained in the stolen files contained any customer financial, credit card, debit, or other payment information"

Nor were the "phone numbers, account numbers, and PINs (or passwords)" of these 48 million people compromised

That's all well and good, but the theft of Social Security numbers is more serious While it is not difficult to cancel a credit card or reset your PIN, your Social Security number remains with you for life

But that's not all The company said that "customer names, phone numbers, and account PINs" of "approximately 850,000" people with "valid" prepaid T-Mobile accounts were compromised; T-Mobile said it has already reset all of these PINs

According to T-Mobile, these people did not have their Social Security numbers compromised They also did not mention their date of birth or home address Those with prepaid accounts are two things they may not need to provide when setting up their accounts

If you have a T-Mobile prepaid account, you will need to reset your PIN again, as well as your account password, but you will probably not have a problem with the possibility of identity theft

The company added that "no T-Mobile Metro, former Sprint prepaid, or Boost customers have had their names or PINs compromised"

However, it said nothing about current or former Sprint postpaid or current Sprint prepaid customers More bad news could come out of this already terrible data breach

On August 27, T-Mobile CEO Mike Siebert apologized on his blog for the data breach (affecting 54 million people, not the previous 48 million) and announced that to prevent future security incidents, he had formed a " announced that it had entered into a "long-term partnership

"I want to say I am truly sorry," Sievert wrote "We have failed to live up to our expectations of protecting our customers"

Sievert said that nearly all of T-Mobile's current customers whose personal information was compromised in the breach have been notified, adding that the company is "working diligently to notify former and prospective customers"