mmh0000
11 hours ago
If I'm not terrible at my math...
T-Mobile earned $8 billion in 2023. Some division later, that works out to $21,000,000 per day.
They were fined less than one day's income. If I owned that company, increasing IT security would be near the bottom of my list of priorities.
notinmykernel
10 hours ago
As part of the agreement, TMobile has to harden IT security and show proof (e.g., CISO who reports regularly to feds, adoption of Zero Trust, adoption of minimal data retention policy). Why TMobile must have their hand held like this is beyond me.
AdmiralAsshat
4 hours ago
And if T-Mobile fails to live up to their end of the agreement, what's the punishment? More meaningless fines?
beefok
10 hours ago
AND we get increased monthly bills to pay for the cost of their fuckups.
freedomben
11 hours ago
Is the $8B profit or revenue?
To your point, $16M is surely not a big fine for such a big company though, but I do think it's important not conflate profit and revenue when evaluating fines.
Generally speaking, I would love to see some much harsher penalties for negligence with data. I want companies to start seeing customer data as a liability, not as an asset, and I don't think that will happen until f**k-ups starts really making a dent in the bank account.
default-kramer
10 hours ago
I still think the C-suite won't care unless the cleanup/penalty costs get pulled directly from their bonus before anywhere else. Otherwise it will just be "oops, I tanked this business, better luck at the next one."
Wytwwww
10 hours ago
> Is the $8B profit or revenue?
Profit, their revenue is almost 80 billion. Fines like this should be certainly based on revenue rather than profit, though (like the EU does it)
freedomben
10 hours ago
Why should they be based on revenue rather than profit? (I'm not disagreeing, interested to understand your reasoning)
supertrope
10 hours ago
Businesses can strategically reduce taxable income. Gross revenue is less malleable.
c0wb0yc0d3r
10 hours ago
No the person you were replying to, but my reason is that revenue is before expenses. The fine actually has to cost the company money for it to mean anything.
blackeyeblitzar
10 hours ago
It’s $8.3B in net income (so profit) - see slide 4 in this PDF: https://s29.q4cdn.com/310188824/files/doc_financials/2023/ar...
jrwoodruff
10 hours ago
The equivalent of about $200 for someone making $100,000/yr
focusedone
11 hours ago
FCC: "That'll teach 'em"
freedomben
11 hours ago
My guess is that the FCC doesn't have a ton of discretion here. They probably have to follow the law. And no doubt an "unreasonbly" large fine would be challenged in court and probably overturned, so this may be the best they can do.
outside1234
10 hours ago
And/or lobbying has made the fines very small