Trust is hard to build and easy to lose. T-Mobile has spent years ratcheting up its defense against SIM-swap attacks, but customers haven't quite forgotten the time when number hijacking was rampant. They were reminded again of the episode after a court document was made public.
The document was brought to light by law firm Greenberg Glusker, which had won $33 million from T-Mobile in its case against the company. The document details the carrier's inaction and oversight that made a SIM swap attack on customer Joseph "Josh" Jones successful.
We asked our readers if the details of the case shook their confidence in T-Mobile, and an overwhelming majority indicated that they did not trust the company. That was to be expected, given that the court concluded that despite increased unauthorised SIM swapping incidents in 2018 and 2019, T-Mobile didn't implement measures that could have stopped attackers from swindling Jones out of $37 million worth of cryptocurrency.
T-Mobile's inaction was bound to harm customers, the court suggested.
We got 3915 responses. Nearly 41 percent, or 1602 of the respondents, said that they had already lost confidence in T-Mobile before the court made its findings public. In addition to SIM swap attacks, which involve accessing T-Mobile's internal systems and deceiving or bribing employees to get their help, the carrier has also been hacked multiple times. Therefore, it's not surprising that many customers already didn't have faith in T-Mobile.
Nearly 52 percent, or 2028 customers, said that the recent development eroded their confidence in T-Mobile. While customers of other carriers have also been the target of SIM swap attacks, T-Mobile is more culpable because it was singled out by cybercriminals as an easier target. That's because the company had weaker defenses, and its employees received little training to recognize and thwart SIM swap attempts.
Does this shake your confidence in T-Mobile?
It was already shaken.
41.1%
Yes.
51.59%
No because they have improved defenses since.
7.31%
Only 7 percent, or 285 of the customers, were unmoved by the revelations, as T-Mobile has since taken steps to fend off attacks. For instance, the company changed how SIM swaps were approved and deployed advanced network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Number Verification and SIM Swap.
Our findings suggest that restoring trust isn't an easy job, especially because the incidents are recent enough to still be fresh in the memory of T-Mobile customers. T-Mobile will need to regain trust by ensuring such security lapses don't happen again, and by fixing problems quickly when something does go awry.
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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.
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