A cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur, Micheal Terpin has sued AT&T and alleged that company failing to secure the mobile data has lead to hacking of cryptocurrencies worth $24 Million.
In a lawsuit filed by Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles on August 15, Terpin claimed that AT & T employees were complicit in a fraud for sim swap. In this type of fraud, criminals claim to be the owners of their victims’ mobile phone numbers, convincing telecommunications providers to give them access to their phones.
This gives them access to the victim’s accounts in various services, including cryptocurrency portfolios as well.
The lawsuit states that the Terpin account has been breached for consecutive second time in last seven months and says, “The most worrisome, AT & T has not bettered its protection, although it is aware of many incidents where some of its employees are working actively with hackers, in sim swap fraud by giving hackers direct access to customer information and breaching AT & T’s security procedures.”
According to the lawsuit, Terpin seeks $23.8 Million in compensatory damages and $200 Million in punitive damages. The process also claims that security issues are not new to AT&T, which has already been accused of not shielding its customers.
“In recent incidents, law enforcement officials have even confirmed that AT & T employees have benefited from direct collaboration with cyber-terrorists and thieves associated with sim-swap frauds,” said the complainant.
In a statement, Terpin said that the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency cannot take place until employees of the telephone companies transfer unauthorized critical access to the core of everyone’s digital life.
When asked to comment, AT & T Commercial Communications Manager Jim Greer told CoinDesk, “we are challenging these allegations and we look forward to bringing our case to court.”
He refused to give details about the company’s objections to the accusation.