T-Mobile has been fined $60m for failing to prevent and report unauthorised access to sensitive data according to senior US officials.
The T-Mobile fine comes from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a body formed to scrutinise foreign investment for national security risks and is its largest penalty issued to date.
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US officials said: “The $60m penalty announcement highlights the commitment to ramping up CFIUS enforcement by holding companies accountable when they fail to comply with their obligations.”
CFIUS is an inter-agency committee in the US government which tightened its regulations in April of this year, marking the first substantive update to its mitigation and enforcement provisions since 2018.
The penalty is tied to violations of a mitigation agreement that German-controlled T-Mobile signed with the panel as part of its $23bn acquisition of US-based Sprint Corp in 2020.
Unauthorised access to sensitive data in this case occurred between 2020 and 2021 during T-Mobile’s post-merger integration with Sprint Corp.
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By GlobalDataA statement by T-Mobile said the company experienced technical issues that affected “information shared from a small number of law enforcement information requests.” It stressed that the data never left the law enforcement community, was reported “in a timely manner” and was “quickly addressed.”
T-Mobile’s failure to report the incidents promptly resulted in a delay by CFIUS to investigate and mitigate any potential harm to US national security, they added, without providing further details.
The committee has issued six penalties in the last 18 months, triple the number it levied between 1975 and 2022, officials told reporters, noting that penalties range from $100,000 to $60m.
In an unprecedented decision, the committee has decided to announce the fine publicly.
Awarding such a significant fine demonstrates that the committee is taking a more robust approach to enforcement as it seeks to deter future violations.
