T-Mobile has Spent 150 million but still can’t solve the problem.

T-Mobile revealed that it has suffered yet another data breach last November. The attackers accessed data belonging to 37million T-Mobile’s current customers. The data included names, emails, dates of birth. Phone numbers, and billing addresses. T-Mobile reported that no credit card information or social security numbers were exposed. However, the set of information exposed can still be used to cause a lot of damage.

T-Mobile has suffered 8 data breaches within 5 years, even after pouring 150 million towards securing its systems.

These breaches will keep happening if there no change in how the cyber-security world approaches security and privacy issues. T-Mobile and many other big tech companies who have been allowed to hold loads of user’s information in centralized databases, have always taken a cops and robbers approach when dealing with security issues.

They’ve never tried solving the real problem. Maybe that’s because dealing with the real problem would mean interfering with their business model.

… And what’s the real problem? It’s lack of accountability!

T-Mobile has not provided any specifics of how the data breach occurred although they mentioned that they’d discovered the source. The company has also not said anything concerning how they’ve been mitigating the situation or intend to. After pouring in hundreds of millions into securing their systems, it’s highly unlikely that the breach was a brute force hack. My best guess is that it was most likely another phishing attack.

Patching up security systems will never work as long as there is no accountability.

Bringing accountability to the internet calls for a different way of doing things. T-Mobile like the rest of Silibandia [Silicon Valley + the Broadband and Media Industries] consider user information a personal money-making asset. They might not be so enthusiastic about bringing accountability since that means they lose control over collection and storage of people’s information.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into accountability.

What is Accountability?

Accountability is attained when digital signatures have a direct link to real human beings. T-Mobile and the rest of Silibandia are happy to collect user information, regardless of whether someone is who they really say they are.

Digital signatures that are connected to and owned by real people can change everything. Take for instance a digitally signed email. If the digital signature cannot be confirmed, then the contents of that email cannot be trusted. The email doesn’t even have to have a name. People can engage in anonymity but still be confident that they can trust the person on the other end.

Phishing, malicious attachments and links would no longer work. It would just take an invalid signature for you to detect an email you cannot trust, even if it look exactly like it’s from someone you know.

As mentioned earlier, real security and privacy calls for a different way of doing things. Connecting digital signatures to real human beings calls for a system of governance. It calls for a source of authority. Since Silibandia has been holding users’ information as their own, they get to exercise that governance and authority. …And they abuse it without care as long as it makes them more profit.

The governance of information infrastructure needs to change. It should not be a preserve of a few billionaires who can afford to sit in the boards of Silicon Valley’s biggest corporations. Check out Authentiverse for more on how you can take control over information about you.

Apart from talking control of your information, you also need to be part of the governance of the world’s information infrastructure. That’s where you get to participate in making sure there is a real human behind any identity claim made online, and people are really who they say they are on the internet.

Visit and learn about the city of Osmio and learn how you can be part of governing the world’s information infrastructure if you become a resident. It is a digital city that allows anyone to participate in ensuring there is accountability online.