DataBreaches.Net

$63 Million OPM Data Breach Settlement Proposed

Posted on by Dissent

From the official settlement website at https://www.opmdatabreach.com/:

OPM Data Breach Settlement

In re: U.S. Office of Personnel Management Data Security Breach Litigation, No. 15-1394 (ABJ) (D.D.C.).

If You Were Subject to the Data Breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and Its Contractor (Peraton Risk Decision Inc.), and You Experienced an Out-of-Pocket Loss After the Breaches, You Could Be Eligible for a Payment from a Class Action Settlement

You may be eligible to receive a payment from a proposed $63,000,000 class action settlement.

The lawsuit is about the data breaches of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”) in 2014 and 2015 and its security contractor in 2013 and 2014 that allegedly compromised personal information of then-current and former federal government employees and contractors, as well as certain applicants for federal employment. The Defendants in the case—OPM and its contractor, known now as Peraton Risk Decision Inc. (“Peraton”) and previously as KeyPoint Government Solutions, Inc.—deny that they did anything wrong and dispute that they have any liability, but have agreed to settle the lawsuit.

To be eligible to make a claim for payment, your personal information must have been compromised in the data breaches, and you must also have suffered an out-of-pocket expense or lost compensable time:

  1. to purchase a credit monitoring product, credit or identity theft protection product, or other product or service designed to identify or remediate the data breaches;
  2. to access, freeze or unfreeze a credit report with a credit reporting agency; or
  3. as a result of an identity theft incident or to mitigate an identity theft incident.

Eligible claimants under the Settlement will receive $700 or the actual amount of the claim—whichever is greater—up to a maximum of $10,000, unless the total value of all valid claims, plus any incentive awards to named plaintiffs, exceeds the amount of money in the fund.

The Settlement does not affect or release claims of anyone who was subject to the data breaches and who did not experience losses within any of the three categories listed above.

You can file your claim here. You can also opt out of or object to the Settlement.

OPM (as authorized by Congress) has made free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services available to all individuals whose personal information was compromised in the data breaches. If you have not signed up for these services but wish to do so, visit www.opm.gov/cybersecurity or call 1-800-750-3004 Monday through Saturday, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Read more about your legal rights and options at https://www.opmdatabreach.com/

A press release can be found here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/a-63-million-settlement-has-been-reached-in-a-class-action-lawsuit-about-the-data-breaches-of-the-us-office-of-personnel-managemen t-and-its-security-contractor-301579362.html

The Office of Personnel Management resulted in years of media coverage and analyses. You can find some of the coverage by searching this site for “OPM breach.”