Editor’s note: Updated at 3:39 p.m. on Jan. 6 to include comment from T-Mobile.

OLYMPIA, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The state is suing major cell phone carrier over a data breach that affected millions of Washingtonians.

In one of his last acts before taking over as governor, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced the lawsuit against T-Mobile today on Monday, Jan. 6.

According to the suit, T-Mobile learned in August 2021 that a hacker had exposed personal information of nearly 80 million customers across the country. That included the Social Security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses and driver’s license information of over 2 million Washington residents.

AG Ferguson claims T-Mobile failed to address cybersecurity concerns for years and that the data breach was a direct result of their lack of accountability.

He also says the company did an inadequate job of contacting its customers about the breach and didn’t even notify some of the affected customers. His lawsuit seeks civil penalties and restitution for the affected Washington residents, as well as improvements to T-Mobile’s cybersecurity policies.

Nick Brown will soon take over as AG after Ferguson is inaugurated as governor next Wednesday, Jan. 15.

T-Mobile said in a statement to MBN: “We have had multiple conversations about this incident from 2021 with the Washington AG’s office over the last several years and even reached out in late November to continue discussions, so the office’s decision to file a lawsuit today came as a surprise. While we disagree with their approach and the filing’s claims, we are open to further dialogue and welcome the opportunity to resolve this issue, as we have already done with the FCC. We also look forward to sharing how T-Mobile has fundamentally transformed our approach to cyber security over the past four years to further protect our customers.”