T-Mobile to fork out $350m penalty over infamous data breach
T-Mobile agrees big pay out, but denies any wrongdoing
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
US operator T-Mobile has promised to pay out $350 million to fund claims, legal fees, and administration costs following 2021’s gargantuandata breach.
The company also said in anSEC filingthat it would fork out $150 million on “data security and related technology” over the next two years.
However, T-Mobile maintained that the settlement “contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing, or responsibility by any of the defendants”.
What actually happened?
T-Mobile claims that the breach impacted 76.6 million people and involved thedata lossof customers’ first and last names, Social Security numbers, and driver’s license information.
The incident was blamed on a “sophisticated cyberattack” and T-Mobile customer data later appeared for sale on the dark web, according to reporting byMotherboard, which said a hacker obtained the information by breaching the telecom company’sservers.
The settlement still needs court approval, which is expected as early as December 2022.
Marriott suffers yet another data breach>AMD is investigating a serious potential data breach>Our guide to best database software right now
Though the settlement amount for T-Mobile, which reported $58.4 billion in full-year 2021 earnings, is fairly eye-popping, it’s still somewhat mid-table in the list of the largest data breach payouts; Equifax paid out $575 million following its widely publicized 2017 incident, while Home Depot paid out $200 million following its 2014 breach.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Recent research from Splunk found that nearly half (49%) of companiessuffered a data breachin the last two years.
ViaThe Verge
Will McCurdy has been writing about technology for over five years. He has a wide range of specialities including cybersecurity, fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence, retail technology, and venture capital investment. He has previously written for AltFi, FStech, Retail Systems, and National Technology News and is an experienced podcast and webinar host, as well as an avid long-form feature writer.
This new phishing strategy utilizes GitHub comments to distribute malware
Should your VPN always be on?
NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Sunday, November 10 (game #252)
