In February 2018, an anonymous user claimed that Freedom Mobile’s MyAccount login could be attacked by guessing customer PINs paired with phone numbers. MobileSyrup reported the claim, but the figures cited were the hacker’s estimates—not verified counts of compromised or exposed accounts. The report’s correction said the hacker claimed to have accessed phone numbers and matching PINs, not the broader profile and billing information they said might be reachable.
What the 2018 report said
On February 12, 2018, MobileSyrup reported that a user calling themselves NullHumanity had posted an allegation on Freedom Mobile’s subreddit. The post included a screenshot of code that appeared to show successful guessing of user logins, according to the news report. In an email exchange with MobileSyrup, the hacker described the login as using a phone number and PIN, a combination they said was susceptible to guessing. The outlet did not say it inspected or reproduced the script.
The story described the login as a “Phone Number/PIN model.” A contemporaneous inspection of a login screen by Bruno Hildenbrand on February 19, 2018 described a four-digit numeric PIN field. That observation establishes what the author saw on the screen, not the backend’s protections or the design of Freedom Mobile’s current login.
What the account figures do—and do not—mean
MobileSyrup attributed the following claims and estimates to NullHumanity. They should not be read as confirmed incident totals:
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| Figure | What it referred to | Evidence status |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Possible values for an unconstrained four-digit decimal PIN | A mathematical count cited in the 2018 MobileSyrup report; not an affected-account count. |
| 2,000 accounts | Accounts the hacker said they had identified as at risk | Attributed to NullHumanity by MobileSyrup; not a verified compromise count. |
| Up to 350,000 accounts | The hacker’s estimate of accounts that might be targetable, based on their program’s failure rates and Freedom’s subscriber count | Attributed estimate, not an independently confirmed exposure count. |
| 23 lines of code | The length of the script the hacker said they wrote | The hacker’s claim as reported by MobileSyrup; the outlet did not report examining the script. |
MobileSyrup’s correction clarified that NullHumanity said they had not accessed information beyond phone numbers and their matching PINs. The story also described other profile and billing information as potentially reachable through a secondary API; it did not establish that this broader information was taken. The sources do not establish a confirmed mass compromise, a population-level incident count, or a regulator-confirmed total.
Why a phone number and PIN raised concern
A four-digit decimal PIN has 10,000 possible values if every combination is allowed. The security concern in the report was not that this number proves an account was breached; it was that a short PIN may be guessable if a login permits enough attempts and lacks effective safeguards. The available accounts do not establish what attempt limits or other backend controls were in place.
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Stosh Fabricius, then a software engineer at digital payments platform Pungle, offered a comparison with banking: a bank PIN is paired with a physical card, while a phone number is readily available. His comment was contextual analysis, not an audit of Freedom Mobile’s authentication system. The distinction matters: the report described an alleged weakness in a specific login flow, not proof that every four-digit PIN system is insecure.
What Freedom Mobile said
MobileSyrup quoted Freedom Mobile vice-president of external affairs Chethan Lakshman as saying: “The security measures we have in place cannot protect against guessing common passwords.” Lakshman encouraged customers to use unique PINs that were difficult to guess and to change them frequently. He also said the company continuously reviewed its security practices and would make changes as appropriate.
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The published account does not document which technical changes, if any, followed. It therefore does not establish that a particular control was deployed or that the reported issue was fully resolved. The 2018 login-screen observation also cannot confirm how the current account system works.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What customers should take from the story today
This is a historical report about a claimed weakness in Freedom Mobile’s MyAccount authentication, not current guidance about the carrier’s login system. The sources available here do not verify today’s controls or the remediation history. For an account question now, use Freedom Mobile’s current official support channels and follow its current security guidance; do not rely on a 2018 interface description as evidence of present-day risk.
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The practical security lesson is narrower: avoid PINs that are common or easy to infer, and do not reuse the same PIN across services. Those precautions do not establish or repair a weakness in a carrier’s authentication system.
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Sources
- MobileSyrup, Rose Behar, “Hacker uncovers Freedom Mobile customer login vulnerability,” February 12, 2018. Includes the hacker’s allegations, Freedom Mobile’s response, expert commentary, and the correction clarifying claimed access.
- Bruno Hildenbrand, “About the Freedom Mobile Hack,” February 19, 2018. Contemporaneous commentary describing the author’s inspection of a login screen and interpretation of PIN guessing; it is not independent confirmation of the allegation.
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