Syniverse, a text message routing company responsible for major US carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and several others around the world such as Vodafone and China Mobile, has just disclosed to government regulators that hackers were inside its own database systems for last five years, impacting more than 200 of its clients and potentially millions of cellphone users worldwide.
The company and carriers have not yet been able to reveal whether the hackers were able to access text messages of customers.
The company, Syniverse, revealed in a filing dated September 27 with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission that an unknown “individual or organization gained unauthorized access to databases within its network on several occasions, and that login information allowing access to or from its Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) environment was compromised for approximately 235 of its customers.”
An SEC filing a week before noted that in May 2021, Syniverse actually became aware of the unauthorized access towards its own operations as well as information tech systems by a certain unknown individual or organization. Quite promptly upon Syniverse’s detection of the said unauthorized access, the company launched an internal investigation.
Aside from just the internal investigation, Syniverse also notified law enforcement and started remedial actions, as well as engaged the services of other specialized legal counsel along with other incident response professionals. Syniverse noted that its own investigation had revealed that the whole unauthorized access started in May 2016.
It was also noted that the individual or organization that had been able to gain unauthorized access to the databases within its own network had done so on several occasions. It was also noted that login information that allows access to or from the EDT or Electronic Data Transfer environment was compromised for around 235 of its own customers. Potential text hacks can lead to things like text raffle scams.
Syniverse is reportedly not revealing more details on this issue. According to a story by ArsTechnica, a certain Syniverse spokesperson actually provided a general statement that technically just mostly repeats what is found in the SEC filing. Syniverse also reportedly declined to answer the specific questions asked whether the text messages were exposed as well as about the impact on major US carriers.
According to SEC filing, Syniverse states:
Syniverse has experienced, and may in the future face, hackers, cybercriminals or others gaining unauthorized access to, or otherwise misusing, its systems to misappropriate its proprietary information and technology, interrupt its business, and/or gain unauthorized access to its or its customers’ confidential information.
For example, in May 2021, Syniverse became aware of unauthorized access to its operational and information technology systems by an unknown individual or organization (the “May 2021 Incident”). Promptly upon Syniverse’s detection of the unauthorized access, Syniverse launched an internal investigation, notified law enforcement, commenced remedial actions and engaged the services of specialized legal counsel and other incident response professionals. Syniverse has conducted a thorough investigation of the incident.
The results of the investigation revealed that the unauthorized access began in May 2016. Syniverse’s investigation revealed that the individual or organization gained unauthorized access to databases within its network on several occasions, and that login information allowing access to or from its Electronic Data Transfer (“EDT”) environment was compromised for approximately 235 of its customers. All EDT customers have been notified and have had their credentials reset or inactivated, even if their credentials were not impacted by the incident. All customers whose credentials were impacted have been notified of that circumstance.
Syniverse has notified all affected customers of this unauthorized access where contractually required, and Syniverse has concluded that no additional action, including any customer notification, is required at this time.
Syniverse did not observe any evidence of intent to disrupt its operations or those of its customers and there was no attempt to monetize the unauthorized activity. Syniverse did not experience and does not anticipate that these events will have any material impact on its day-to-day operations or services or its ability to access or process data. Syniverse has maintained, and currently maintains, cyber insurance that it anticipates will cover a substantial portion of its expenditures in investigating and responding to this incident.
While Syniverse believes it has identified and adequately remediated the vulnerabilities that led to the incidents described above, there can be no guarantee that Syniverse will not uncover evidence of exfiltration or misuse of its data or IT systems from the May 2021 Incident, or that it will not experience a future cyber-attack leading to such consequences. Any such exfiltration could lead to the public disclosure or misappropriation of customer data, Syniverse’s trade secrets or other intellectual property, personal information of its employees, sensitive information of its customers, suppliers and vendors, or material financial and other information related to its business. The release of any of this information could have a material adverse effect on Syniverse’s business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.
Read SEC filling in full here.
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