An individual claiming to be behind the T-Mobile knowledge breach that uncovered nearly 50 million folks’s information has come ahead to disclose his identification and to criticize T-Mobile’s safety, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. John Binns advised the WSJ that he was behind the assault and supplied proof that he may entry accounts related to it, and went into element about how he was capable of pull it off, and why he did it.

According to Binns, he was capable of get buyer (and former buyer) knowledge from T-Mobile by scanning for unprotected routers. He discovered one, he advised the Journal, which allowed him to entry a Washington state knowledge middle that saved credentials for over 100 servers. He known as the provider’s safety “awful” and stated that realizing how a lot knowledge he had entry to made him panic. According to the WSJ, it’s unclear whether or not Binns was working alone, although he implied that he collaborated with others for at the least a part of the hack.

The data the hacker gained entry to contains delicate private knowledge, like names, birthdates, and Social Security numbers in addition to necessary mobile knowledge like identification numbers for cellphones and SIM playing cards. T-Mobile has stated in an announcement that it’s “confident” that it’s “closed off the access and egress points the bad actor used in the attack.”

The WSJ’s report goes in-depth into Binns’ historical past as a hacker. He claims that he bought his begin making cheats for in style video video games and that he found the flaw that ended up being utilized in a botnet that attacked IoT devices (although he denies really engaged on the code).

According to Binns, his relationship with US intelligence companies is troubled, to say the least. A lawsuit that seems to have been filed by Binns in 2020 calls for that the CIA, FBI, DOJ, and different businesses inform him what data they’ve on him. The lawsuit additionally accuses the federal government of, amongst different issues, having an informant attempt to persuade Binns to purchase Stinger missiles on an FBI-owned web site, attacking Binns with psychic and power weapons, and even with being concerned in his alleged kidnapping and torture. An FBI response to his lawsuit denied he was being investigated by the bureau for the botnet, or having data associated to the alleged surveillance, and abduction, and torture.

Binns advised the WSJ that one in all his targets behind the assault was to “generate noise,” saying that he hopes somebody within the FBI will leak data associated to his alleged kidnapping. It’s unlikely that Binns’ state of affairs will probably be improved now that he’s shone a highlight on himself as the one who hacked one of many US’s main carriers. However, if his reviews about how he gained entry to an unlimited trove of T-Mobile knowledge are true, it paints a regarding image of the provider’s safety practices.