Freedom Mobile warns that it suffered a data breach earlier this year, resulting in hackers accessing a “limited number” of customers’ personal information.
In a notice published on Freedom’s website, the carrier said it detected “unauthorized activity on [its] customer account management platform” on October 23, though it did not disclose exactly how many customers were impacted.
“Our investigation revealed that a third party used the account of a subcontractor to gain access to the personal information of a limited number of our customers. We quickly identified the incident and implemented corrective measures and security enhancements, including blocking the suspicious accounts and corresponding IP addresses,” the company explained in the notice.
Freedom stressed that neither payment information nor passwords were accessed, but did note some personal information was accessed by hackers, including:
- First and last name.
- Home address.
- Date of birth.
- Phone numbers (home and/or cell).
- Freedom Mobile account number.
The carrier says it has “no reason to believe that this information was misused,” but also encouraged customers to be cautious and take steps to protect themselves.
For example, Freedom warned customers to be wary of unexpected messages asking for personal information or directing customers to a website to share personal information. The carrier says it will “never ask you for personal information such as credit card numbers, banking information, passwords, or PIN codes by email or SMS.”
It also warned people not to click links or download attachments from suspicious emails or texts, and to monitor their accounts for unusual activity.
Concerned customers can contact Freedom by emailing ‘privacyofficer@freedommobile.ca.’ Canadians can also leverage resources like the RCMP’s recently launched cybercrime and fraud website to report incidents of fraud and access additional resources.
The above best practices are generally good advice all the time, but especially in situations like this when hackers have accessed personal information. Malicious actors can leverage personal information to make phishing schemes and other fraudulent activities seem legitimate, such as by sending messages to Freedom customers that include details like account numbers to make the message look like it actually came from Freedom.
Unfortunately, this isn’t Freedom’s first data breach. The carrier previously suffered a breach in 2019 when a security flaw resulted in the data of 15,000 customers being exposed.
