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Assist Wireless exposes tens of thousands of customer IDs in five states

July 30, 2021 | | Filed Under: General Tagged With: privacy

Tens of thousands of Assist Wireless Lifeline free government cell phone customers have had their personal customer documents exposed online.

Those low-income Americans are enrolled with Assist Wireless in Arkansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma.

This could result in identity theft for those customers. The stolen documents include drivers licenses, Social Security numbers and United States passports. In other words, exactly the kind of documents customers typically use to prove their identities.

Who has reason to worry? Which customers may be exposed? Primarily those who enrolled in the Lifeline program during calendar years 2019 and 2020.

You may feel relieved that Assist discovered and corrected the problem on its own, but that is not the case. A prominent security researcher actually stumbled across the exposed documents while performing a simple Google search. The researcher in turn passed the news on to TechCrunch and asked them reveal the leak to the character. The exposed documents, according to Assist, were quickly deleted from its website.

Here’s more from TechCrunch.com about how the leak was discovered:

Assist told TechCrunch that it traced the issue to a third-party plug-in, Imagify, which the carrier uses to optimize images on its website. Assist said that the plug-in by default puts a backup of uploaded images in a separate folder, but that the backup location in Assist’s case was not secure.

“We have resolved the issue by turning the backup off and removed the folder from public view,” said Assist.

The carrier told TechCrunch it also submitted an “urgent request” to Google to remove the documents from its cached image search results. (TechCrunch held this story until the images were scrubbed.)
Assist said it is investigating if anyone else found the exposed data before the issue was fixed.

We would not imagine that these are good times to be working in Assist’s public relations department. Here is part of the un-reassuring statement issued in an attempt to put a lid on this story:

“Assist Wireless takes security and consumer data very seriously. We are hiring a third-party security firm to provide us with a thorough security audit and subsequent consultation on ensuring customer data is as safe as possible moving forward.”

This is one of those cases where the incident was truly the case of an accident. Of course, accident or not, those whose identities were stolen cannot be happy with Assist. But to the company’s credit, it seems to be doing everything possible to rectify its own errors.

Important Pages

  • A guide to Obama Phone providers in your state
  • Obama Phone News & Updates
  • What is the Obama Phone?
  • Who qualifies for an Obama Phone?
    • Tribal Head Start
    • Veterans Pension and Survivors Pension Eligibility for an Obama Phone
  • How to Get an Obama Phone?
  • Obamaphone Providers
  • Who Started the Obama Phone?
  • Lifeline Facts
  • Obama Phone FAQs
  • Discussion Forum / Q&A

Subsidized Internet Too

The FCC has also encouraged major internet providers to provide high-speed broadband to the very same people that qualify for the Obama Phone. Only $9.95 a month. There are cheap internet plans for both cable and DSL. To learn more please go to CheapInternet.com.

Recent News

  • Dropping like a rock: ObamaPhone enrollment falls by two million in three years
  • $7 Billion Bonanza: The new FCC Broadband Connectivity Fund
  • Sprint charges government for inactive Lifeline customers, FCC fines them $200 million for fraud
  • More than 1,000,000 have already signed up for government’s new $50 per month internet discount
  • Universal broadband for everyone who needs it! Free government cell phones for everyone who needs them! Mark Lowenstein for FCC Commissioner!
  • Could your ObamaPhone arrive with malware installed?
  • Assist Wireless exposes tens of thousands of customer IDs in five states
  • Is it the BidenPhone? Free unlimited talk, unlimited text AND unlimited data for a limited time
  • USAC’s port freeze rule eliminated, ObamaPhone customers can now switch companies at any time
  • Obama is gone, and now his enemies want to kill the Obama Phone program

Some Facts

#1 The Lifeline Assistance program started in Tennessee in mid-2008 and is now available in 49 states, DC and Puerto Rico.

#2 You qualify for a phone simply by accepting other government assistance -- Medicaid, food stamps, SSI, National School Lunch, Section 8 Housing, Home Energy assistance and others.

#3 The FCC is currently wrapping up a large pilot program that's testing ways to expand the ObamaPhone program to include broadband internet access.

Read More:
Lifeline Facts

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