Experian shares drop after T-Mobile USA warns that 15m customers have been hacked

Shares in Experian fell 4.2 per cent to 1,030p this morning after it emerged up to 15 million people may be affected by the latest data breach, in which hackers targeted records of T-Mobile USA customers through Experian data.

In a strongly-worded public statement the network provider's chief executive John Legere said an investigation was now taking place into the hack, which is believed to affect people requiring credit checks for services or device financing from 1 September 2013 to 16 September 2015.

Names, addresses and birth dates are among the information stolen, as well as encrypted fields with people's social security numberr and ID number including driver’s licenses or passport numbers.

“Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian, but right now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected,” said Legere.

“I take our customer and prospective customer privacy VERY seriously. This is no small issue for us. I do want to assure our customers that neither T-Mobile’s systems nor network were part of this intrusion and this did not involve any payment card numbers or bank account information.

“Experian has assured us that they have taken aggressive steps to improve the protection of their system and of our data.”

He told concerned customers they could sign up for two years of free credit monitoring and identity resolution services at www.protectmyID.com/securityincident.

“At T-Mobile, privacy and security is of utmost importance, so I will stay very close to this issue and I will do everything possible to continue to earn your trust every day,” Legere added.

This is the latest in a number of hacks this year. Dixons Carphone revealed a credit card data breach this summer, while last month Lloyds admitted that thousands of its customers had potentially had data stolen.

That's not forgetting the Ashley Madison hack, which is thought to affect around 40m people.