A federal judge on Wednesday formally finalized a $63 million settlement that will soon allow thousands of current and former federal employees to receive payouts as part of the agreement stemming from a 2015 breach of data maintained by the Office of Personnel Management.
OPM disclosed two data breaches in 2015: one that exposed the personnel files of all current and former federal employees and another that released the personally identifiable information of all applicants for security clearances, as well as their families. Those individuals are set to receive a minimum of $700 and up to $10,000 from the agreement if they can prove they were victims of the hack and incurred out-of-pocket expenses or lost compensable time. More than 22.1 million people were impacted by the breaches.
They now have until Dec. 23 to file a claim for damages. The plaintiffs are part of a class action lawsuit that reached a $63 million settlement earlier this year with OPM and its contractor, now known as Peraton Risk Decision Inc. As of the latest filing earlier this month, more than 19,000 employees have filed a claim.