The personal information of about 17 million T-Mobile subscribers in Germany has gone missing.

News broke over the weekend that Deutsche Telekom’s mobile phone business, T-Mobile, fell victim to the theft back in 2006.

The theft has bee reported to state prosecutors in Bonn and then to the attention of the Interior Ministry in Berlin after learning that German magazine Der Spiegel was planning to publish details of the robbery.

The missing data includes subscribers’ mobile phone numbers, addresses, datse of birth and in some cases email address. Thankfully for DT and its mobile users bank account details and credit card numbers remain secure.

DT claims that it has no evidence that the records, which include the confidential details of leading politicians and celebrities, have been used for illicit purpose. Although, some reports claim the records had been offered for sale online, but no one had bought them.

The German incumbent has set up a telephone hotline to deal with enquiries.