Google Fi customer data was accessed after suspicious activity according to reports. Tech company, Google has now come out to blame the breach in question on the main cellular network provider partner and that is T-Mobile, a platform that suffered a significant data breach in 2022.
Google Fi
A data breach has now reportedly affected Google Fi mobile phone network customers, the company on Monday said in an email directed to those affected by the unauthorized access. The apparent problem happened because of the partnership of Google with T-Mobile.
The data came from a third-party system at the primary network provider of Google Fi, Google said in its email. The main cellular network provider of Google Fi is T-Mobile although it also makes use of the smaller rival USCellular network.
The Main Use of the Breached System
The breached system is utilized for customer support and it holds limited data this is inclusive of when an account of a customer was activated, information about the plan, the serial number of the SIM card, and whether or not the account is active or not, the company said in its email.
The limited data however does not contain a customer’s name, date of birth, payment information, email, tax ID, social security number, driver’s license number, or any other government ID information, PINs, financial information, passwords, text messages, and call data.
The Cause of the Breach
The reported mishap in question could be directly related to a significant breach in T-Mobile which ultimately affected 37 million customers in the early parts of January. This was the eighth time that the telecom company had been hacked since 2018. Tech company Google said that none of its internal systems or systems its controls were accessed.
Google Fi Does Not Own Any of Its Own Cellular Network Infrastructures
The service, Google Fi does not own any of its own cellular network infrastructures. The platform instead partners with T-Mobile and USCellular in providing services. The service is not related to Google’s mobile operating system known as android directly.
Other Google Infrastructural Breaches
Significant account breaches that are involving the infrastructure of Google are unusual, but they however are not unknown. In 2013, one attack was blamed on Chinese attackers, and another that took place in 2018, exposed the information of 500,000 users of Google plus, the failed rival to Facebook that was eventually shut down by Google. The company popularly pays thousands of dollars in ‘big bounties’ to researchers who locate security flaws in its products.
