TracFone will pay $16 million to settle FCC data breach investigation


Following three separate data breaches between 2021 and 2023 which exposed the proprietary information (PI) of TracFone Wireless customers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that the Verizon-owned company has agreed to pay a $16 million civil penalty to settle the government investigation, and it has made an agreement to improve its application programming interface (API) security.

TracFone Wireless Inc. is an American prepay wireless service provider wholly owned by Verizon. TracFone services are used by the brands Straight Talk, Total by Verizon Wireless, and Walmart Family Mobile. The settlement ends an investigation into TracFone’s security practices to uncover whether the breaches were the result of ineffective cybersecurity protocols.

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Source: Malwarebytes Labs


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