After multiple data breaches that affected up to 3 billion Yahoo accounts, the company has reached a $117.5 million class-action settlement, offering those affected up to $358 in payouts (though likely much less.)
In 2016 Yahoo confirmed two data breaches—one in August 2013 after an unauthorized third party stole “data associated with more than one billion user accounts,” (which the company later disclosed actually affected all 3 billion Yahoo users) and another in 2014 by an unknown “state-sponsored actor,” that involved at least 500 million usernames and passwords.
The 2013 breach is believed to be the largest-ever known data breach.
Bank account information and payment card data were not believed to have been targeted in the 2013 hack, the company said. Instead, user account information including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth and passwords were likely stolen.
The settlement comes months after a $700 million settlement by the credit bureau Equifax following a 2017 hack that exposed the Social Security numbers of nearly 150 million people.
As part of the Equifax settlement, those affected by the breach were eligible for free credit monitoring and identity theft protection for up to 10 years or an up to $125 payment. However, the amount that claimants receive will likely be dramatically reduced because of the overwhelming number of claims filed.
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