Deutsche Telekom is involved in the latest data leakage scandal. The mobile division T-Mobile has admitted that over 17 million customer data records were stolen in 2006. Der Spiegel reports that the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) records, phone numbers, addresses, birth dates and some e-mail addresses of customers, were being offered for sale on the Internet.

The stolen data includes that of many German celebrities such as Hape Kerkeling and Guenther Jauch, as well as a number of ex-directory numbers and home addresses of politicians, ministers, an ex-federal president, business leaders, billionaires and religious leaders.

Apparently the T-Mobile data was stolen in early 2006, the company reported to the Bonn prosecutor and the German Federal Criminal Agency (Bundeskriminalamt). A number of homes have been searched  and copies of data recovered. The criminal gang involved have not been identified or arrested an so are still at large, it is suspected, with further copies of the data.

The scandal is not the first for Deutsche Telecom who have been rocked by allegations that telephone calls from the firm’s supervisory board and journalists were intercepted and taped. The Workers Council allege that telephone calls and e-mails of trade unionists have also been intercepted.