T-Mobile has agreed to pay $31.5 million to settle the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data breach charges arising out of multiple data breaches reported in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
The company has acknowledged inadequate cybersecurity protection that led to multiple data breaches. These breaches caused leak of sensitive consumer data. Under the various breaches reported by T-Mobile, the data compromises included customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers (SSN) and driver’s license numbers. The customer information also included details of the customer’s T-Mobile subscription plan.
The customers affected by these data breaches included current, old and potential new customers of T-Mobile.
The FCC Chairwoman remarked -“Today’s mobile networks are top targets for cybercriminals. Consumers’ data is too important and much too sensitive to receive anything less than the best cybersecurity protections.”
As part of the settlement terms agreed between the T-Mobile and the FCC, T-Mobile will spend half of the money to boost its IT infrastructure in terms of cybersecurity protection. The remaining half of the penal amount would accrue to the Government as a civil fine.
Rajesh Dhawan is a technology professional who loves to write about Cyber-security events and stories, Cloud computing and Microsoft technologies. He loves to break complex problems into manageable chunks of meaningful information.