AT&T is making another settlement over a hacking investigation. This time around, the wireless carrier will be paying $13 million to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after the government agency found that AT&T failed to ensure a supply chain vendor in January 2023.
The FCC said that an Enforcement Bureau investigation was being done into AT&T’s supply chain integrity to see if it failed to protect its customers’ information related to a data breach of a vendor’s cloud environment. It was found that AT&T used the vendor to generate and host personalized video content, including its customers’ billing and marketing videos.
The original agreement was that the vendor should destroy or return AT&T’s customer information when no longer necessary to fulfill contractual obligations. Even though the contract ended years before the breach took place, AT&T failed to ensure if the vendor had either “adequately protected customer information” or “returned or destroyed it.”
As part of the settlement, AT&T entered into a Consent Decree, which promises that AT&T will strengthen its data governance practices.
You can read more about the FCC report here.
