FCC Fines Phone Companies $10M For Unsecured Data

The FCC cracked down on two jointly-owned firms that failed to properly protect users’ personal information, fining them $10 million for violating the Communications Act. More than 300,000 customers had their Social Security numbers, names, addresses and driver’s license numbers stored on unprotected servers, and that data was available for nearly a full year. That showed the firms “lacked even the most basic and readily available technologies and security features,” the FCC said in a release. The companies also failed to inform customers of the breach once it was identified.