Secret Service Data Compromised in T-Mobile Hack

Hack exposed information on 400 customers, including a U.S. Secret Service agent.

A malicious hacker penetrated the network of mobile phone company T-Mobile USA and accessed information on 400 of the company's customers, including sensitive information from the account of a U.S. Secret Service agent, according to statements by T-Mobile and the Secret Service.

In an e-mail statement, the Bellevue, Washington, mobile carrier acknowledged that Nicholas Jacobsen, a California-based hacker, compromised its internal computer systems in 2003 and viewed the Social Security numbers of 400 customers. A grand jury in California charged Jacobsen with one count of unauthorized impairment of a protected computer and one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer, according to a copy of the indictment.

Included among the customers was a U.S. Secret Service agent who had agency materials linked to Secret Service investigations stored on T-Mobile systems. That information was obtained by Jacobsen, but did not compromise any ongoing work, according to Secret Service spokesperson Jonathan Cherry.

The unnamed agent violated rules that forbid sensitive documents from being copied to other computer systems, Cherry says. He would not comment on whether the agent would be punished ...

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Paul Roberts, IDG News Service