Sony agreed to pay $8M settlement to its employees

Sony Pictures Entertainment has agreed for an $8 million settlement with the company's former and current employee after its data was stolen in a cyber attack launched by North Korea. During the breach, information of its employees was stolen resulting in a mounting of lawsuits from each employee involved.

The company was requested to pay the amount for the identity theft lost by the US District Court in Los Angeles on Monday ending a year long lawsuit. NBC News reported some details regarding the settlement such as Sony will have to pay $10,000 per person for the identity theft and another $1,000 per person for the credit fraud protection services.

The total for the payment alone is $4.5 million and the company also required to pay the legal fees for all the process which amounting to $3.5 million. Reuters reported that the settlement must be approved by the US District Judge Gary Klausner.

Reuters reported that the lawsuit was filed by its former employees citing the company's negligence as the main cause for the data breached. Around nine employees that filed the lawsuit saying that they are now forced to pay for extra security card protection to ensure that their data will not be jeopardized again.

All the lawsuits were later on combined into one and Sony agreed to pay for a settlement with the plaintiff. This comes after Sony's bid to overrule the lawsuit was rejected by Gary Klausner saying that the employee data should be protected by Sony. Klausner also blames Sony inefficient management including violation of California confidentiality law causes the attack to become worse.

The attack in November 2014 made the attackers released around 40 gigabytes worth of email transcripts and sensitive data related with Sony as reported by the Newsweek. The attack that was done by a group calling themselves as the "Guardian of the Peace", in order to make sure that Sony will not release its controversial movie, "The Interview".

"The Interview" is a comedy movie starring Seth Rogen and James Franco which depicts the duo is planning an assassination to kill the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Although Sony continues with the release, lots of theatres refuses to play the movie in fear of any attack and to avoid any controversial. Lack of interest by theatres forced Sony to release the movie via online streaming alone and in just 300 selected theatres across the US.