US: AT&T Settles with FCC for $25 million

AT&T is paying $25 million in a settlement with federal regulators over data breaches at call centers in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines that compromised customer data for some 280,000 U.S. customer accounts.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the agreement Wednesday with the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier. It was the agency’s largest privacy and data-security enforcement action to date.

The breaches occurred from Nov. 4, 2013 to April 21, 2014 at a call center in Mexico, from Feb. 14 to July 14, 2014 in Colombia and from May 20 to December 2014 in the Philippines, the FCC said. Most customers were Spanish-speaking U.S. residents.

Call center employees were paid by third parties to obtain customer information such as names and full or partial Social Security numbers. The information was used to submit online requests for cellular unlock codes for stolen cellphones, the agency said.

The call centers were operated by contractors of Dallas-based AT&T.

Full Content: The Washington Post

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