If you live in Trinidad and Tobago, your personal information could be on the dark web after a MASSIVE data breach at TSTT!

So a few weeks ago, the international hacking group Ransomexx announced that they infected the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago with ransomware and stole up to six gigabytes of data.

That’s hundreds of thousands of names, e-mail addresses, national ID numbers, phone numbers and other sensitive data.

Ransomware is a type of computer virus that steals and threatens to publish a victim’s data or permanently blocks access to it unless a ransom is paid.

Now originally, TSTT was doing some wordplay.  The official line was that there was an attempted cyber-attack on October 9 and they acted swiftly to protect customer data. 

They emphasised that no data was lost or compromised, meaning no data was deleted or manipulated from its databases. 

But just because customer information wasn’t deleted from their database, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stolen. So they kinda sidestepped the real issue.

And IT professionals have already confirmed that TSTT’s customer information IS available on the dark web. One expert told Trinidad’s Daily Express that he’d examined the info himself and about four databases are accessible to the public.

And listen, Ransomexx is notorious for high-profile hacks on government agencies and manufacturers. 

So this sidestepping has caused a lot of distrust and anger among Trinis. Especially since the breach reportedly includes ID scans, which puts customers at significant risk for identity theft and fraud.

Trinidad’s Minister of Public Utilities, Marvin Gonzales, has ordered an independent investigation into the hack, but the horse is already long out of the gate… and that’s the bottom line.