high match confidence
Sentence-level differences:
- Reworded sentence: "Additionally, to offer services to our customers and operate our business, we utilize a number of applications and systems, including those we own and operate as well as others provided by third-party providers, such as cloud services (collectively, “Systems”)."
- Reworded sentence: "12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents In addition, we routinely rely upon third-party providers whose products and services are used in our business."
- Removed sentence: "With the assistance of outside cybersecurity experts, we located and closed the unauthorized access to our systems and identified current, former, and prospective customers whose information was impacted and notified them, consistent with state and federal requirements."
- Removed sentence: "We have incurred certain cyberattack-related expenses, including costs to remediate the attack, provide additional customer support and enhance 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents customer protection, and expect to incur additional expense in future periods resulting from the attack."
- Removed sentence: "For more information, see “Recent Cyberattacks” in the Overview section of our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."
Current (2024):
Our business involves the receipt, storage, and transmission of confidential information about our customers, such as sensitive personal, account and payment card information, confidential information about our employees and suppliers, and other sensitive information about our…
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Our business involves the receipt, storage, and transmission of confidential information about our customers, such as sensitive personal, account and payment card information, confidential information about our employees and suppliers, and other sensitive information about our Company, such as our business plans, transactions, financial information, and intellectual property (collectively, “Confidential Information”). Additionally, to offer services to our customers and operate our business, we utilize a number of applications and systems, including those we own and operate as well as others provided by third-party providers, such as cloud services (collectively, “Systems”). We are subject to persistent cyberattacks and threats to our business from a variety of bad actors, many of whom attempt to gain unauthorized access to and compromise Confidential Information and Systems. In some cases, the bad actors exploit bugs, errors, misconfigurations or other vulnerabilities in our Systems to obtain Confidential Information. In other cases, these bad actors may obtain unauthorized access to Confidential Information by exploiting insider access or utilizing log in credentials taken from our customers, employees, or third-party providers through credential harvesting, social engineering or other means. Other bad actors aim to cause serious operational disruptions to our business and Systems through ransomware or distributed denial of services attacks. Cyberattacks against companies like ours have increased in frequency and scope of potential harm over time, and the methods used to gain unauthorized access constantly evolve, making it increasingly difficult to anticipate, prevent, and detect incidents successfully in every instance. They are perpetrated by a variety of groups and persons, including state-sponsored parties, malicious actors, employees, contractors, or other unrelated third parties. Some of these persons reside in jurisdictions where law enforcement measures to address such attacks are ineffective or unavailable, and such attacks may even be perpetrated by or at the behest of foreign governments. 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents In addition, we routinely rely upon third-party providers whose products and services are used in our business. These third-party providers have experienced in the past, and will continue to experience in the future, cyberattacks that involve attempts to obtain unauthorized access to our Confidential Information and/or to create operational disruptions that could adversely affect our business, and these providers also face other security challenges common to all parties that collect and process information. In August 2021, we disclosed that our systems were subject to a criminal cyberattack that compromised certain data of millions of our current customers, former customers, and prospective customers, including, in some instances, social security numbers, names, addresses, dates of birth and driver’s license/identification numbers. As a result of the August 2021 cyberattack, we are subject to numerous claims, lawsuits and regulatory inquiries, the ongoing costs of which may be material, and we may be subject to further regulatory inquiries and private litigation. For more information, see “– Contingencies and Litigation – Litigation and Regulatory Matters” in Note 17 – Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements. In January 2023, we disclosed that a bad actor was obtaining data through a single Application Programming Interface (“API”) without authorization that was only able to provide a limited set of customer account data, including name, billing address, email, phone number, date of birth, T-Mobile account number and information such as the number of lines on the account and plan features. Our investigation indicated that the bad actor(s) obtained data from this API for approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customer accounts, though many of these accounts did not include the full data set. As a result of the August 2021 cyberattack and the January 2023 cyberattack, we have incurred and may continue to incur significant costs or experience other material financial impacts, which may not be covered by, or may exceed the coverage limits of, our cyber liability insurance, and such costs and impacts may have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, cash flows and operating results. In addition to the August 2021 cyberattack and the January 2023 cyberattack, we have experienced other unrelated non-material incidents involving unauthorized access to certain Confidential Information and Systems. Typically, these incidents have involved attempts to commit fraud by taking control of a customer’s phone line, often by exploiting insider access or using compromised credentials. In other cases, the incidents have involved unauthorized access to certain of our customers’ private information, including credit card information, financial data, social security numbers or passwords, and to certain of our intellectual property. Some of these incidents have occurred at third-party providers, including third parties who provide us with various Systems and others who sell our products and services through retail locations or take care of our customers. Our procedures and safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to Confidential Information and to defend against cyberattacks seeking to disrupt our operations must be continually evaluated and enhanced to address the ever-evolving threat landscape and changing cybersecurity regulations. These preventative actions require the investment of significant resources and management time and attention. Additionally, we do not have control of the cybersecurity systems, breach prevention, and response protocols of our third-party providers, including through our cybersecurity programs or policies. While T-Mobile may have contractual rights to assess the effectiveness of many of our providers’ systems and protocols, we do not have the means to know or assess the effectiveness of all of our providers’ systems and controls at all times. We cannot provide any assurances that actions taken by us, or our third-party providers, including through our cybersecurity programs or policies, will adequately repel a significant cyberattack or prevent or substantially mitigate the impacts of cybersecurity breaches or misuses of Confidential Information, unauthorized access to our networks or systems or exploits against third-party environments, or that we, or our third-party providers, will be able to effectively identify, investigate, and remediate such incidents in a timely manner or at all. We expect to continue to be the target of cyberattacks, given the nature of our business, and we expect the same with respect to our third-party providers. We also expect that threat actors will continue to gain sophistication including in the use of tools and techniques (such as artificial intelligence) that are specifically designed to circumvent security controls, evade detection, and obfuscate forensic evidence, making it more challenging for us to identify, investigate and recover from future cyberattacks in a timely and effective manner. In addition, we have acquired and continue to acquire companies with cybersecurity vulnerabilities or unsophisticated security measures, which exposes us to significant cybersecurity, operational, and financial risks. If we fail to protect Confidential Information or to prevent operational disruptions from future cyberattacks, there may be a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, cash flows, and operating results.
View prior text (2023)
Our business involves the receipt, storage, and transmission of confidential information about our customers, such as sensitive personal, account and payment card information, confidential information about our employees and suppliers, and other sensitive information about our Company, such as our business plans, transactions, financial information, and intellectual property (collectively, “Confidential Information”). We are subject to persistent cyberattacks and threats to our networks, systems, and supply chain from a variety of bad actors, many of whom attempt to gain access to and compromise Confidential Information by exploiting bugs, errors, misconfigurations or other vulnerabilities in our networks and other systems (including purchased and third-party systems) or by engaging in credential harvesting or social engineering. In some cases, these bad actors may obtain unauthorized access to Confidential Information utilizing credentials taken from our customers, employees, or third parties. Other bad actors aim to cause serious operational disruptions to our business or networks through other means, such as through ransomware or distributed denial of services attacks. Cyberattacks against companies like ours have increased in frequency and potential harm over time, and the methods used to gain unauthorized access constantly evolve, making it increasingly difficult to anticipate, prevent, and/or detect incidents successfully in every instance. They are perpetrated by a variety of groups and persons, including state-sponsored parties, malicious actors, employees, contractors, or other unrelated third parties. Some of these persons reside in jurisdictions where law enforcement measures to address such attacks are ineffective or unavailable, and such attacks may even be perpetrated by or at the behest of foreign governments. In addition, we routinely provide certain Confidential Information to third-party providers whose products and services are used in our business operations, including as part of our IT systems, such as cloud services. These third-party providers have experienced in the past, and will continue to experience in the future, cyberattacks that involve attempts to obtain unauthorized access to our Confidential Information and/or to create operational disruptions that could adversely affect our business, and these providers also face other security challenges common to all parties that collect and process information. In August 2021, we disclosed that our systems were subject to a criminal cyberattack that compromised certain data of millions of our current customers, former customers, and prospective customers, including, in some instances, social security numbers, names, addresses, dates of birth and driver’s license/identification numbers. With the assistance of outside cybersecurity experts, we located and closed the unauthorized access to our systems and identified current, former, and prospective customers whose information was impacted and notified them, consistent with state and federal requirements. We have incurred certain cyberattack-related expenses, including costs to remediate the attack, provide additional customer support and enhance 12 12 12 Table of Contents Table of Contents customer protection, and expect to incur additional expense in future periods resulting from the attack. For more information, see “Recent Cyberattacks” in the Overview section of our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. As a result of the August 2021 cyberattack, we are subject to numerous claims, lawsuits and regulatory inquiries, the ongoing costs of which may be material, and we may be subject to further regulatory inquiries and private litigation. For more information, see “– Contingencies and Litigation – Litigation and Regulatory Matters” in Note 19 – Commitments and Contingencies of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements. In January 2023, we disclosed that a bad actor was obtaining data through a single Application Programming Interface (“API”) without authorization. Based on our investigation to date, the impacted API is only able to provide a limited set of customer account data, including name, billing address, email, phone number, date of birth, T-Mobile account number and information such as the number of lines on the account and plan features. The result from our investigation to date indicates that the bad actor(s) obtained data from this API for approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customer accounts, though many of these accounts did not include the full data set. We believe that the bad actor first retrieved data through the impacted API starting on or around November 25, 2022. We continue to investigate the incident and have notified individuals whose information was impacted consistent with state and federal requirements. As a result of the August 2021 cyberattack and the January 2023 cyberattack, we may incur significant costs or experience other material financial impacts, which may not be covered by, or may exceed the coverage limits of, our cyber liability insurance, and such costs and impacts may have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, cash flows and operating results. In addition to the recent cyberattacks, we have experienced other unrelated immaterial incidents involving unauthorized access to certain Confidential Information. Typically, these incidents have involved attempts to commit fraud by taking control of a customer’s phone line, often by using compromised credentials. In other cases, the incidents have involved unauthorized access to certain of our customers’ private information, including credit card information, financial data, social security numbers or passwords, and to certain of our intellectual property. Our procedures and safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to Confidential Information and to defend against cyberattacks seeking to disrupt our operations must be continually evaluated and enhanced to address the ever-evolving threat landscape and changing cybersecurity regulations. These preventative actions require the investment of significant resources and management time and attention. Additionally, we do not have control of the cybersecurity systems, breach prevention, and response protocols of our third-party providers. While T-Mobile may have contractual rights to assess the effectiveness of many of our providers’ systems and protocols, we do not have the means to know or assess the effectiveness of all of our providers’ systems and controls at all times. We cannot provide any assurances that actions taken by us, or our third-party providers, will adequately repel a significant cyberattack or prevent or substantially mitigate the impacts of cybersecurity breaches or misuses of Confidential Information, unauthorized access to our networks or systems or exploits against third-party environments, or that we, or our third-party providers, will be able to effectively identify, investigate, and remediate such incidents in a timely manner or at all. We expect to continue to be the target of cyberattacks, given the nature of our business, and we expect the same with respect to our third-party providers. If we fail to protect Confidential Information or to prevent operational disruptions from future cyberattacks, there may be a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, financial condition, cash flows, and operating results.