With its $25 million settlement with AT&T, the “FCC has now planted its flag, and sent the message that it will use its powers to protect consumers,” Jenny Durkan, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, told the Cybersecurity Law Report.  The FCC’s decision earlier this year to classify Internet providers as public utilities under the FCC’s jurisdiction has caused a broad range of companies to follow the agency’s actions closely.  The record AT&T settlement resolves an investigation into the theft of information by employees of a vendor call center in Mexico and requires AT&T to, among other things, overhaul its compliance program, provide free credit-monitoring services for affected customers and meet certain compliance benchmarks at intervals for the next seven years.