T-Mobile reaches $500 million settlement in huge 2021 data breach
By Michael Corkery
T-Mobile has agreed to a settlement totaling $500 million in a class-action lawsuit filed by customers after the company disclosed in August that sensitive data had been breached in a cyberattack.
In a court filing late last week, the mobile-phone giant said it would pay $350 million to settle the customers’ claims and spend $150 million over the next few years bolstering its cybersecurity protection and technologies.
The breach affected 76.6 million people in the United States, according to the company. It exposed highly sensitive data, including customers’ first and last names, Social Security numbers and driver’s license information.
It was not clear how much individual T-Mobile customers would receive from the settlement, although the proposed agreement, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, stipulates that individual payments cannot exceed $2,500.
At the time of the breach, T-Mobile said the compromised files included current accounts as well as the records of people who had applied for credit with the company.
In Friday’s filing, lawyers for T-Mobile said the settlement agreement did not mean the company was acknowledging any wrongdoing. The breach was one of many that have occurred in the tech, banking and retail industries in recent years.
A representative for T-Mobile could not immediately be reached for comment about the settlement.