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.
Read more…
Source: Malwarebytes Labs
Related:
- New York amends data breach law
February 24, 2025
On December 24, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed into law an amendment to section 899-aa of the N.Y. General Business Law, also known as The Shield Act, modifying the law’s data breach notification requirements. The amendment, which took effect immediately, incorporates provisions that other states have adopted in recent years. First, the amendment shortens ...
- Over a million clinical records exposed in data breach
February 21, 2025
Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered the DM Clinical Research database containing 1,674,218 records, totaling 2TB, including names, medical information, phone numbers, email addresses, medications, and health conditions – along with other data. Although the name of the dataset indicates the details belong to DM Clinical Research, it’s not clear if this was owned and managed by ...
- Finastra Notifies Customers of Data Breach
February 19, 2025
British financial technology firm Finastra has notified customers impacted by a data breach that occurred over three months ago. Between October 31 and November 8, 2024, an unauthorized third party accessed the company’s secure file transfer platform (SFTP), used to share files with customers. Although the breach was detected on November 7, and the company acknowledged ...
- Data breach leaks a whopping 2.7 billion records inclusing smartphone and Wi-Fi info
February 16, 2025
A huge data breach has resulted in the leak of 2.7 billion records belonging to China’s Mars Hydro. The company is involved in indoor growing and hydroponics which is the process of growing plants without soil. The company offers LED grow lights, grow tents, and other products. Because many of the products it offers are controlled ...
- US Coast Guard Suffers Data Breach, Pay Delayed for 1,135 Members
February 14, 2025
The Coast Guard’s personnel and payroll system experienced a data breach resulting in a delay in pay for 1,135 service members. The breach will affect bi-weekly pay for 1,135 members, according to a Coast Guard statement to USNI News. “The Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Cyber Command are leading an exhaustive investigation to determine ...
- Zacks Investment hit in data breach – 12 million users potentially at risk
February 14, 2025
A report by BleepingComputer cites a thread posted on an underground hacking forum claiming to have breached Zacks in June 2024, gaining sensitive information on 12 million people, including names, usernames, email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers. The forum thread contained a small sample, and an offer for the entire batch in exchange for a ...