Following a cyberattack in August 2021 in which a hacker breached T-Mobile's systems and stole private information relating to millions of customers, the company has agreed to pay $350 million to settle class-action lawsuits.
An SEC filing on Friday afternoon states that the wireless carrier also consented to invest an extra $150 million in data security and associated technology this year and the following year.
T-Mobile Will Pay $500 Over Data Breach Incident
In order to settle a class-action lawsuit arising from the 2021 attack, which T-Mobile says exposed the data of around 76.6 million U.S. citizens, the company has agreed to pay $500 million.
T-Mobile has agreed to pay $350 million to settle class action lawsuits that were filed after a hacker breached its computer systems in August 2021 and stole private information about millions of users. Claims made by class members, plaintiffs' legal fees, and administrative expenses will all be covered by the $350 million payout, GeekWire reported.
According to a Friday afternoon SEC filing, the wireless carrier also agreed to invest an extra $150 million in data security and related technologies this year and the following year.
The Verge mentioned that T-Mobile will have ten days to deposit money into the fund to pay the costs of alerting those who are entitled to claim if the proposed settlement deal is approved by the judge, which is still pending.
The company said in its SEC filing that if the court approves the settlement, it "will resolve substantially all of the claims brought by the Company's current, former and prospective customers who were impacted by the 2021 cyberattack."
The settlement agreement doesn't provide projections on how much each claimant may expect to get.
According to a T-Mobile spokesperson, the company continues to work with other regulators who are looking into the incident separately.
Read More : T-Mobile Data Breach 2021 Hacker Slams 'Awful' Security; Mobile Company Facing New Major Problems
What Happened During the Data Breach Incident
In a separate report by The Verge, T-Mobile acknowledged that its servers had been compromised and that illegal access to some of its data had taken place.
The outlet cited a Motherboard report claiming that information stolen from T-Mobile's servers was advertised for sale on an underground forum. The seller of the information claimed that it contained Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver's license details for more than 100 million individuals.
The company stated last year that it is certain that the entry point used to obtain access has been shut down and that it is continuing a thorough technical assessment of the problem across the systems to determine the type of data that may have been illegally accessed. Although the probe will take some time, the company is moving with the utmost urgency.
Several data breaches have affected T-Mobile in recent years. Some of its users' phone numbers and call-related information may have been made public during an incident in December 2020, although the company insisted at the time that it did not include names or Social Security numbers.
