AT&T Fined $25M After Call Center Workers Stole Customer Data

The FCC this week said AT&T has agreed to pay $25 million to settle an investigation into the theft of U.S. customers’ personal information by call center workers in Mexico, Columbia and the Philippines. The settlement is the largest the FCC has ever issued for data privacy violations. About 280,000 U.S. customers were affected, with their names, partial social security numbers and account-related data sold by the employees to third parties. The FCC said it has been looking into whether AT&T informed law enforcement of the data theft in a timely manner.