Breach, Compliance Management, Data Security, Privacy

Senators demand answers on data breach from T-Mobile and Experian

Three senators yesterday sent a letter to the CEOs of T-Mobile and Experian demanding to find out what he companies are doing in the wake of the data breach last week at Experian that compromised the personal information of 15 million T-Mobile customers.

Senators Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., both ranking members of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ranking member of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and the Internet wrote to T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Experian CEO Brian Cassin that the found the incident to be potentially devastating to consumers due to the type of information that was released.

“This news is extremely troubling to us given the sensitive nature of the compromised personal data, and its particular value to identity thieves,” the letter stated.

The senators specifically noted that the personal data taken in the breach, customer's names, birth dates, addresses and social security numbers, can cause greater financial damage to a person than bank or credit card fraud.

The three said the companies have had enough time to examine the problem, discover why it happened and to come up with a course of corrective action.

 

Experian CEO Brian Cassin  

 “We request that Experian's information-security executives provide a detailed accounting to the Committee regarding your investigations and latest findings on the circumstances that permitted unauthorized access to the personal information of so many Americans,” the letter said.

T-Mobile and Experian have not yet responded to a request by SCMagazine.com made Thursday for their response to the senators' letter.

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