Syniverse, one of the most popular telecommunication companies, revealed in a September 27 SEC filing that their network security had been compromised. 

Syniverse has been in the field of providing network services for a long time and AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and other telecommunication companies collaborate with Syniverse for messaging services. With traveling customers all over the world, Syniverse provides essential roaming services to other telecom companies.

More than 370 billion annual transactions are provided by Syniverse and the company has skilled board members, including former Verizon executive Dan Mead and former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Syniverse has been delivering telecom services ranging from signaling methods that authenticate the specification of customers to authorizing a suitable level of services.  

Syniverse recently filed an SEC filing due to a merger with a public trading company called M3-Brigade Acquisition II Corporation. The acquisition would make Syniverse a public trading company as well and the initial enterprise value of this treaty was $2.85 billion.

Syniverse reported in the SEC filing that a certain person or organization tried to access their IT system. Investigation showed that their data had been compromised several times starting from May 2016 and the login access of about 235 customers had been jeopardized. 

Syniverse said that customers had been informed where required contractually, and all the necessary protocols had been taken care of. Syniverse also said that it had made sure to inform law enforcement officials and the company expects that its cyber insurance will cover a substantial portion of the expenses in investigating and responding to the incident.

A Syniverse representative said that they did not notice any disturbance in operations or customer data and the illegal activity had not been monetized. The company also said that it did not observe any activity that impacted its day-to-day operations. Syniverse further assured stakeholders that it could still run smoothly and was equipped for any future unpleasant activities.

Vice reported that the criminal entity that had breached Syniverse had access to metadata such as caller and receiver numbers. Metadata (a set of data that describes and gives information about other data) is used to summarize basic information regarding something such as the content of an SMS. It can indirectly provide information to hackers.

Syniverse, however, released a statement saying that they had rebooted their customers’ credentials. The company also said that it had reset the credentials of customers who were unaffected by the incident, making sure that no customer was left unchecked, and that now no further action was needed.

Syniverse concluded the statement by saying that they were going above and beyond to protect their system and their customers. They said that they are continuously communicating with their customers directly for any queries and information and the company doesn’t foresee any public statement as the nature of the case was confidential. Further information will be revealed as investigations continue.