T-Mobile customers file class action lawsuits as investigation finds 53 million affected by data breach

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T-Mobile confirms 5.3 million more customers had their information stolen in a data breach.
Over 53 million T-Mobile customers have been affected by the cyber security attack.
Two class action lawsuits were filed against the wireless carrier as customers seek compensation.
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The number of users whose personal information might have been compromised in a recent cyber attack of T-Mobile has climbed to 53 million, as the telecommunication company is hit by a pair of class-action lawsuits.

T-Mobile announced Friday it had discovered that another 5.3 million current customers and 667,000 former customers also had their information stolen.

The wireless carrier is now up against two class action lawsuits filed by upset customers, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Both lawsuits accuse T-Mobile of violating the California Consumer Privacy Act which allows any Californian the right to see all the information a company has saved on them, as well as a full list of all the third parties that data is shared with. One of the lawsuits also accuses T-Mobile of violating the Washington State Consumer Protection Act for having poor data security.

According to the lawsuit Espanoza v. T-Mobile USA Inc., the plaintiffs and the class action members contend their identities are at risk because of neglect on the part of T-Mobile. The plaintiffs are also concerned with the monetary costs and the "time spent mitigating the effects of the Data Breach, including time spent dealing with actual or attempted fraud and identity theft."

The information stolen from the customers includes names, addresses, dates of births, phone numbers, social security numbers, and driver's license information. T-Mobile says that the information stolen from the additional customers did not include social security numbers and driver's license information.

T-Mobile does not believe that customers had their financial information, credit card information, debit, or other payment information stolen in the attack.

T-Mobile reset the PINs associated with these accounts and is also offering additional protection services like McAfee's ID Theft Protection Service and Account Takeover Protection capabilities for all customers.

"We are continuing to take action to protect everyone at risk from this cyberattack, including those additional persons we recently identified," the company said in a statement. "We have sent communications to millions of customers and other affected individuals and are providing support in various ways."

T-Mobile originally became aware of the data breach after hackers posted in an underground forum, Vice's Motherboard first reported.

The seller of the information is asking for six bitcoins, worth about $297,279 as of publishing, for 30 million social security numbers and driver's licenses, according to Motherboard. The seller is privately offering the rest of the breached information.

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