Sony Pictures has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to former workers who sued the company after their personal data was compromised in the infamous hack linked to the company’s release of North Korean-based comedy, “The Interview” last year.
Details on the agreement are scarce but the nine employees who sued have until Oct. 19 to review and submit preliminary approval of the settlement, Reuters reported.
To Sony’s displeasure, nearly 50,000 employees are seeking representation in the lawsuit and class certification. The United States District Court, Central District of California will hear arguments whether the case deserves class-action status Sept. 14, according to Deadline Hollywood, which broke the story.
The potential settlement comes 10 months after Sony’s servers were breached by North Korea-linked state actors in retaliation to the studio’s impending release of “The Interview,” which starred actors Seth Rogen and James Franco. The film featured North Korean leader Kim Jon-un’s assassination. The hackers penned terror threats against U.S. movie theaters that showed the film, and leaked internal emails detailing movies in the works, scripts, and actor wages.
Hacked emails that came to light in September also suggest Sony altered the upcoming “Concussion” film on brain trauma in the NFL and starring Will Smith, to paint a more forgiving portrait of the league’s treatment of the players’ health issues.
Lawsuits against Sony regarding the breach were filed almost immediately after the November hack, and sparked a nationwide debate on cybersecurity and whether the U.S. should launch a national or military response when sensitive information is compromised such as in the case of the massive Office of Personnel Management (OPM) breach announced in July. The Obama administration is currently looking into economic sanctions against China, which was linked to the theft of millions of federal background records.
The White House floated legislation the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), which Congress has since punted, to reinforce U.S. cybersecurity defenses through federal and corporate information-sharing. Privacy groups rallied against the bill because of the potential for government surveillance, successfully stalling a Senate vote until after Labor Day.