Freedom Mobile warns that there was a data breach earlier this year in which hackers gained access to a “limited amount” of customers' personal information.
IN notice published on Freedom websitethe carrier said it had detected “unauthorized activity on [its] Customer Account Management Platform” on October 23, although the company did not say exactly how many customers were affected.
“Our investigation revealed that a third party was using a subcontractor account 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 suspicious accounts and associated IP addresses,” the company explained in the notice.
Freedom stressed that neither payment information nor passwords were accessed, but noted that the hackers gained access to some personal information, including:
- First and last name.
- Home address.
- Date of birth.
- Telephone numbers (home and/or mobile).
- Freedom Mobile account number.
The operator says it has “no reason to believe that this information was misused” but also urges 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 to direct customers to a website to exchange personal information. The operator states that it will “never ask you for personal information such as credit card numbers, banking information, passwords or PINs via email or SMS.”
It also warned people not to click links or download attachments from suspicious emails or text messages, and to monitor their accounts for unusual activity.
Interested customers can contact Freedom by emailing [email protected]. Canadians can also use resources such as Newly launched RCMP Cybercrime and Fraud Website To report fraud and gain access to additional resources.
The above recommendations are generally always good advice, but especially in situations like this where hackers have gained access to personal information. Attackers can use personal information to make phishing schemes and other fraudulent activities appear legitimate, for example by sending messages to Freedom customers that include details such as account numbers to make the message appear as if it actually came from Freedom.
Unfortunately, this is not Freedom's first data breach. The carrier previously suffered from a violation in 2019 when A security bug led to the disclosure of 15,000 customer data..
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