Syniverse, a company that helps telecom carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T send messages between them and other carriers overseas, revealed last week that it had been the subject of a five-year-long hack. Syniverse, a company that helps carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T route messages between each other, is also responsible for the disappearances of large amounts of Valentine's Day text messages in 2019.
Last week, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Syniverse revealed the hack. Syniverse documents that it was alerted to the hack in May 2021 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It also states that it conducted an internal investigation and notified law enforcement. Five years of possible unrestricted access.
The hack dates back to 2016
Hackers gained unauthorised access to its network databases on multiple occasions. The filing states that the login information that allowed access to its Electronic Data Transfer environment (EDT) was compromised for approximately 237 of its customers. According to Motherboards sources, this could have included access to call records and metadata such as phone numbers, locations and text message content.
According to Syniverse's SEC filing, the company notified all those affected by the breach and provided reset credentials. The filing also states that Syniverse didn't observe any evidence of an intent to disrupt its operations, or those of its customers, and that there was no attempt at monetizing the illegal activity. The Verge asked Verizon, AT&T and Syniverse for comment, but they did not respond immediately. T-Mobile, however, referred questions to CTIA. T-Mobile told Ars Technica it was aware that Syniverse had suffered a security breach, but there are no indications that personal information, call records details or text messages of T-Mobile customers were affected.
The security breach at Syniverses was discovered as the company tried to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, it appears like the company was the target because of its size. The Verges' earlier reporting revealed that Syniverse has been a quasi-gatekeeper for several US carriers over the past decade through acquisitions. It is important to be a good businessman, but it is even more important when things go wrong, as was the case with SolarWinds.
