Ashley Madison will pay $11.2 million to data breach victims
Ashley Madison is still picking up the pieces two years after the massive data breach that exposed millions of users’ information. The parent company of the cheat-on-your-spouse website continues to deny any wrongdoing, but it has agreed to settle the preliminary class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of 37 million users whose personal details were dumped onto the dark web. Ruby Corp is ready to pay $11.2 million for the settlement, though the amount still has to be approved by a federal judge in St. Louis.
According to Reuters, the data breach cost Ruby Corp over a quarter of its revenue. It had to spend a lot of money to boost security and privacy in an effort to win over new users, and now to settle lawsuits the breach caused. In addition to the $11.2 million it has to pay people who were affected by the breach, the company also settled charges from the FTC and 13 states for $1.6 million last year.
Those who were affected by the security breach can claim up to $3,500, depending on how well they’ve documented their losses due to the event. Since it’s a website that encourages cheating on one’s spouse, though, $3,500 might only cover a small fraction of what some people lost.
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