CUSTOMERS could be eligible for a one time cash payment after a huge $30million data breach settlement.
Genetics testing firm 23andMe is set to issue the cash payments after almost seven million user accounts were hacked and their sensitive data stolen.
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A class action suit filed in San Francisco accused the company of failing to protect its customers’ privacy.
It has also been slammed for failing to tell =clients that certain ethnic groups are specifically targeted by hackers who sell their data on the dark web.
Those with Chinese and Ashkenazki Jewish ancestry were more affected in the cyber attack last year.
Hackers used old passwords to break into people’s files – connected to around 14,000 profiles.
These were linked to millions more via ancestry tracing.
From October data belonging to over four million people in the UK and a million Ashkenazi Jews were leaked on a Reddit thread and on hacking blog BreachForums.
In January the firm admitted that attackers stole health reports and raw genotype data between April and September.
It has agreed to shore up its cyber protections and annual checks but denied “any wrongdoing whatsoever” in the lawsuit.
The settlement includes cash payments for those who had their data compromised and lets customers enrol in a three year program called Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring.
23andMe said the settlement request was reasonable on Friday but asked the judge to pause proceedings for tens of thousands of people involved in the suit.
The company cited it’s “extremely uncertain financial condition” in the request – which it asked to be in place until the settlement is approved.
A statement from the company said it expects some £25million to be covered by cyber insurance.
The data breach happened in April 2023 and lasted some five months.
It hit almost half of the 14.1 million customers in the firm’s database at the time.
23andMe disclosed the breach in a blog post in October last year.
Lawyers representing those behind the lawsuit said their clients’ main claims had been addressed.
The company is in a difficult financial situation after going from $10 dollars per share three years ago to less than $1 since mid-December.
