T-Mobile, unauthorized data capture and updates to the official word

I get to hang out with some very clever cryptographers at a bar about once a month. They make math-y jokes over my head, but demonstrate that best case is a stalemate where data is no longer significant before it’s encryption theme has become significantly penetrable.

T-Mobile announced an unauthorized capture of data. The updates paint a picture almost as disturbing as the loss itself in that they show either a misunderstanding or a ~careful wording to diminish verbal impact~, followed by better disclosure.

Here are a few that stood out for ~beer spit-take~ potential with the cryptography nerds;

“Because they weren’t [compromised]. They were encrypted.”

“may have included one or more of the following: name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number and account type (prepaid or postpaid).”

“about” or “slightly less than” 3% of its 77 million customers.” …so about …2 million…

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a3qpk5/t-mobile-hack-data-breach-api-customer-data

https://www.t-mobile.com/customers/6305378821