 |
| The SMS company suffered violations for five years |
Syniverse is a carrier that helps carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T route text messages between them and other third-party carriers. The company has announced that it has been a target of potential hacking attacks for the past five years.
The hack was revealed in a Synverse document released last week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Syniverse said it discovered in May 2021 that unknown people or organizations had unauthorized access to its computers and operating systems.
The company conducted its due diligence by notifying law enforcement agencies and conducting internal investigations, and found that the security breaches began in May 2016. The hacker had unfettered access for five years.
According to the document, the hackers repeatedly accessed the database within their network without permission, and the authorized access or login credentials from the Electronic Data Transfer (EDT) environment of their 235 clients were exposed.
This can include access to call logs and metadata such as phone number, location, and text messages.
Syniverse's SEC filing revealed that the company had notified all offenders that it was appropriate to reset their credentials.
Hackers have gained access to billions of text messages
Additionally, Syniverse has found no evidence of intent to disrupt its operations or its customers. The document states that there was no attempt to profit from the illegal activity.
Syniverse is a global clearinghouse for global operators used to transfer billing information between each other. Therefore, sensitive information such as call logs, data usage logs, and text messages are sent.
Syniverse discovered a security flaw while trying to go public. This was done through a merger with dedicated acquisition company SPAC. But that sounds like a goal, largely given the company's size.
Syniverse has attempted to become the president of several US telecom companies over the past decade. This is done through acquisition.
Synverse is an important part of the global communications infrastructure used by AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and many other companies around the world such as Vodafone and China Mobile.