Around 500 million internet users who trusted web portal Yahoo to look after their personal information can claim a share of $117.5 million compensation after hackers stole their data.
The good news is Yahoo is offering most users two-years of free credit monitoring to detect if their personal and financial details are leaked online.
Other customers based in the USA and Israel can join a class action settlement for the compensation.
If Yahoo users were sent a data breach notice or held an account with Yahoo between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, they are eligible for the free credit monitoring or up to $358 in cash.
The credit monitoring service typically costs $14.95 per month, or $359 for two years. People who already have credit-monitoring will be paid cash instead.
Losses of up to $25,000 repaid
Customers who can prove the breach led to out-of-pocket losses, including lost time, they could pick up to $25,000.
Yahoo has agreed to reimburse customers for time and costs spent as a result of the data breach at a rate of $25 per hour for up to 15 hours or unpaid time off work at their actual hourly rate, whichever is higher.
If the loss is not documented, they can receive a payment for up to five hours at that same rates.
Claims must be filed by July 20, 2020 online through a special web site.
Yahoo reported two data breaches in 2013 and 2014 that affected hundreds of millions of customers around the world who lost their data to a suspected hack linked by the FBI to a group in Russia.
$350m wiped off stock value
The company did not publicly release information about the hack until two years later.
Two suspected Russian spies were prosecuted in connection with the online attack in the USA.
Yahoo’s owner at the time, Altaba, was fined $35 million by the US Securities Exchange Commission.
After the internet portal was sold to Verizon in 2016, another suspected hack was revealed that affected up to a billion Yahoo account holders.
Executives were sacked for acting ineffectively to close the security breach and $350 million was wiped off Yahoo’s stock value.