Lifeline Providers Exposed Records on 305,000 People

Mobile operators TerraCom Wireless and YourTel Wireless gave personal data to information technology firm Vcare, which then left it out on the Web. It wasn't until a journalist stumbled upon the records that the infraction came to light.

TerraCom and YourTel offered the discounted Lifeline Assistance phone service for low-income U.S. residents. As part of registration, customers are required to submit financial records which prove that their incomes are low enough to qualify for the program.

In early 2013, an investigative reporter working for Scripps Howard News Service discovered that the companies were storing information submitted by applicants on an unprotected internet site.

"Between March 24, 2013, and April 26, 2013, Scripps accessed at least 128,066 confidential records and documents submitted by subscribers and applicants for the Companies’ services. Scripps located a consumer’s data file by conducting a simple Google search,” the Federal Communications Commission said in a statement. “Once it had located a single file, Scripps shortened that file's URL and obtained access to the entire directory of applicant and subscriber data."