Following 2021 T-Mobile data breach, AG Ellison urges protective measures

Josh Skluzacek KSTP
(Courtesy: MGN)

Wednesday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison urged Minnesotans to take measures to protect their personal identity.

Ellison specifically urged those affected by last year’s T-Mobile data breach to take action to protect themselves from identity theft. His office said around 670,000 Minnesotans were affected by the breach, which impacted around 53 million Americans.

RELATED: Data of more than 40 million exposed in T-Mobile breach

The Attorney General’s Office says millions of personal records from the breach were recently found for sale on the dark web.

His office says Minnesotans can take the following steps to protect themselves:

  • Monitor your credit for new accounts or large changes.
  • Consider placing a free credit freeze on your credit report so thieves can’t open a new account in your name.
  • Place a fraud alert on your credit report, telling lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before issuing credit.
  • Watch for other warning signs of identity theft.
  • Contact the Attorney General’s Office for help or to submit a complaint.

Ellison’s office is working with 48 other attorneys general to investigate the data breach and determine if T-Mobile violated privacy and consumer protection laws, Ellison’s office says.

“Our personal information should be exactly that — personal. When our personal information gets compromised, it hurts our ability to afford our lives and keep ourselves and our families safe,” Ellison said in a statement. “T-Mobile’s data breach last year was a massive betrayal of Minnesotans’ trust. While almost every attorney general in America and I continue to investigate T-Mobile for this data breach, I strongly urge all Minnesotans who think they may have been harmed by it to take steps to protect themselves and their personal information from identity theft. I want to stress that this includes people who weren’t T-Mobile customers at the time, because the data breach compromised the personal information of former and prospective customers as well as current ones.”