Page 4


www.us-tech.com


September, 2021 TECH-OP-ED SOUNDING OFF


By Michael Skinner Editor


T-Immobile: Sluggish Telecom Giant Hacked Again


cess to its servers and stolen the information of some 50 to 60 million former, current and prospective customers. This jackpot of a cyberattack includes names, birthdates, driver’s


L


license and ID information, and social security numbers, as well as phone numbers and their related IMEI and IMSI information. T-Mobile’s bullet point summary of the leak’s discovery and af-


termath reads like a kid who’s found trying hastily to tape together pieces of the neighbor’s broken window before anyone sees. This is a nightmare scenario for any business, but for T-Mobile, it is particu- larly devastating. This is the fifth such attack that the company has had to address


publicly over the past few years, though by far the most severe. In August of 2018, the company revealed that cyber-villains had stolen the information of two million customers. A little more than a year af- ter, in November 2019, another million customers were notified that their information may have been “illegally obtained by unauthorized users.”


Again, in March 2020, the company was attempting to reassure


customers, and its own employees, that a somewhat minor (only 200,000 accounts) leak of personal information had been found and subsequently plugged. The signatures on the dotted lines of freshly renewed ID moni-


toring service agreements had hardly been dry when hackers struck gold this past January.


And then, the mother of all hacks. According to Motherboard, an


anonymous figure had advertised a trove of personal information from more than “100 million people” in a forum post. The hacker claims to have exploited a misconfigured GPRS gate-


way and found a way in, quietly downloading a hoard of users’ per- sonal information. The hacker stated that they were offering a subset of this data, 30 million social security numbers and driver’s licenses, for six Bitcoin. At the time the data breach was made public, six Bit- coin was equal to roughly $280,000 USD. Access to the rest of the da- ta is being sold privately. Telecom companies are an obvious target for cybercrime, as the


infrastructure that they build and maintain carries loads of sensitive information, and the data they store to do business must be always accessible.


Incidents like this are sure to grow in frequency as criminals are


emboldened by the success of others, chase the same notoriety, and continue to be able to appear anonymous and remote. With the pow- er of today’s computers and the relentless pace of these kinds of at- tacks, it’s easy to imagine an extreme future where nothing digital is safe. Sure, the idea that most of our personal information is probably packaged and for sale on the dark web is frightening. But, by bring- ing more of these cases out in the open, more people are made aware of the risks of personal information being stored anywhere with an internet connection. Fortunately, by making a couple of prudent decisions, like lock-


ing your credit and using two-factor authentication or something whenever possible, you can isolate yourself somewhat from danger. While this won’t ensure that your information isn’t stolen again from the next huge data breach at T-Mobile or countless other service providers, you can make sure that wherever it is, the thief will find it difficult to mimic you. We should all get comfortable with the idea that data “privacy” is not the same as data “security.” r


PUBLISHER’S NOTE


By Jacob Fattal Publisher


It’s Good to be Back I


atest in a string of massive failures of data security and an event that has become remarkably common for the company, T- Mobile revealed that a cyberattacker had gained backdoor ac-


n February of last year, when the novel coronavirus began to dom- inate headlines in the United States, we had just returned from a week at MD&M West in Anaheim, California. While China had


been wrestling with the virus for months, most of the world remained optimistic that a handful of reported international infections would be contained. Only a few weeks later, the WHO declared the crisis a global


pandemic, the stock market plummeted, and before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the situation was about to get much worse. So it was fitting that after 18 months, U.S. Tech returned to in-


person electronics manufacturing trade shows by exhibiting at MD&M West 2021. This year’s regularly scheduled event was post- poned by about six months, and the timing couldn’t have been writ- ten any better. Now, like all of us who were fortunate enough to be able to work


remotely, U.S. Tech was anything but dormant during this time. We enjoyed taking part in virtual exhibitions, managed our meetings from home, and spent quite a bit more time on the phone, all while laying our plans for a return to some semblance of normalcy. During the past year and a half, we greatly expanded our circu-


lation, modestly in print and significantly online. The positive feed- back we received regarding our revised print format and new digital initiatives from colleagues, friends, readers around the world, and many who belong to all three groups, kept up our spirits. We’ve finalized our 2022 editorial and trade show calendar and


media kit, which will be useful as you make your marketing plans for the new year. Our 2022 calendar appears on page 96 of this edition, and our new media kit is available upon request. The next few months will be a whirlwind of activity, with regu-


larly scheduled annual events coinciding and even co-locating with shows that were postponed earlier in the year. Our industry is buzzing, the excitement is palpable, and we look forward to meeting you in person again soon. r


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100