The lawsuit filed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against T-Mobile has concluded after a settlement has been agreed upon. Based on the settlement, T-Mobile has been imposed a fine of almost $16 million. The company has likewise been asked to improve its security.
In their investigation, the commission closely monitored numerous cases of data breaches that occurred within three years. According to the FCC, T-Mobile failed to fix these issues despite them happening repeatedly, affecting millions of its customers' personal and private information.
T-Mobile Fined $16M in a Settlement for Data Breaches
that its Enforcement Bureau and T-Mobile have reached a settlement regarding the case it filed against the telco company for the repeated data breaches it suffered within the span of three years. According to the commission, T-Mobile has been given a $15.75 million civil penalty to pay to the US Treasury.
It has also beenrevealed by the FCC that cybersecurity incidents from 2021 through 2023 happened to T-Mobile, leading to millions of customers suffering from its aftermath. The FCC has since investigated the company to analyze what happened during the breaches and what steps T-Mobile took to address the security issues.
T-Mobile Asked to Improve Security to Avoid Breaches
T FCC has also asked T-Mobile to improve their security measures to avoid further breaches, asking them to work on their flaws and adopt "robust modern architectures" that will help against unauthorized access. The commission said it received "enforceable commitments" from T-Mobile which involve the company's chief information security officer regularly reporting to the board.
The FCC has claimed that it is a landmark case that serves as an example to other telcos and their security measures. The commission is asking them to protect their customers and national security interests.
Data Breach Against T-Mobile Exposed Customers
While T-Mobile has offered the fastest 5G download speeds in Ookla's annual tests for several years now, the company is infamously known for a massive controversy regarding its system's security. There have been different cases of T-Mobile suffering from data breaches, with one in 2023 focusing on API access that led to 37 million accounts having their information stolen.
However, the data breaches that it suffered were not an isolated case as they happened to the company on different occasions and throughout the years, significantly affecting its security. Personal and sensitive information were reportedly stolen by hackers. These notortious incidents have since caught the attention of the FCC, who prompted an investigation.
The security problems of T-Mobile persisted through the years, and the company has been said to be negligent about these issues as they continued to run their operations normally. That being said, the FCC is now being set as an example to the telecommunications industry when it comes to cybersecurity.
