Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) just reached a settlement with a group of former employees who filed a class-action lawsuit against the company over a data breach.
The plaintiffs claimed that Sony Pictures could have done more to protect itself against a hacking attack, but its negligence made the data breach possible. Ex-employees had their personal information stolen in a cyber attack linked to last year's release of the movie The Interview, which was a satirical comedy envisioning a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
The movie allegedly angered North Korean hackers who breached the security of Sony Pictures. The data breach came to light back in November 2014, after it destroyed company data and exposed secrets, prompting the studio to cancel the release of The Interview at the time.
Hackers breached the studio's computer systems and obtained data on employee salaries, medical records, social security numbers and more, releasing sensitive information. In June, Sony failed in its attempt to dismiss allegations that its negligence allowed hackers to break into its systems.
Sony further argued that the case should not proceed as a class-action lawsuit, while also pointing out to the judge that none of the lead plaintiffs had suffered any financial losses stemming from the data breach.
The lawsuit is still pending approval to proceed as class-action, combining seven different suits by former employees affected by the hack and data dump. A hearing later this month was set to rule on the class-action status, but it now seems that Sony has reached a tentative settlement with its former employees to end the lawsuits.
"On September 1, 2015, Plaintiffs and SPE reached an agreement in principle to settle all of the claims of the putative class against SPE, subject to final documentation, which will be submitted for the Court's approval in accordance," attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in a new filing, as cited by Deadline.
No details are currently available regarding the terms of the settlement, but a motion from eight former Sony employees seeking preliminary approval of the deal will reportedly go through by Oct. 19.
The class certification hearing was scheduled for Sept. 14, but both sides in the case have reportedly asked the court for a 45-day delay pending the proposed settlement and its final approval.
