Crime and wrongdoing will always exist among human society. Although governments try to prevent people from committing crimes and apprehend them after criminal acts have already been carried out, they don’t always succeed in these efforts. Either way, the fear of getting caught has persuaded many planned criminals from actually carrying out their nefarious plans.
A large portion of criminal activity has been diverted from the “real world” in recent years, as criminals have turned to computers, mobile phones, other modern electronic devices, and the World Wide Web to steal valuable information or money, hold assets at ransom, or otherwise engage in activities that have the ultimate goal of earning money for the people carrying them out.
These people, known as cybercriminals, are responsible for the countless breaches of user information that tech companies have confessed to in recent years.
One of the most recent instances of major corporate entities’ digital security fences being broken through comes in the form of cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access to an undisclosed number of Sprint subscribers’ accounts via a website operated by Samsung, one of the world’s most popular tech manufacturers.
Samsung operated a website that allowed existing Samsung device users and prospective customers to readily add phone lines onto consumers’ phone plans, which hackers are said to have breached.
According to Sprint, the fourth-largest of the four major wireless service providers in the United States, there’s not great reason to believe that the cybercriminals managed to get their hands on information that put users at a real-deal, practical risk for identity theft or financial fraud such as credit card, debit card, or Social Security numbers. Further, Sprint explained that the cybercriminals likely had open access to subscribers’ phone numbers, mobile device identification codes, residential and billing addresses, and account numbers, among other forms of personal information.
According to Sprint, the company initially caught on to the cybersecurity breach just short of a month ago, on June 22 of this year. Further, the wireless giant reset its users’ personal identification number (PIN) codes on June 25, at least for all the users that were thought to be affected by the breach.
There is currently no evidence, according to what Sprint has released, regarding how many users have been affected, exactly what date or dates on which the breach occurred, and whether criminals were able to alter or use Sprint customers’ information.
