Comcast agrees to 1175 million settlement to resolve data breach lawsuits

pThe settlement agreement resolves 24 lawsuits filed following a 2023 data breach A final approval hearing is scheduled for July ppComcast is one step closer to settling 24 classaction lawsuits over a 2023 data breach that potentially impacted over 30 million former and current customers ppA 1175 million settlement agreement received preliminary approval from a federal judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania last week ppImpacted customers would be able to receive three years of financial monitoring and identitytheftprotection service and choose between reimbursement of expenses up to 10000 or a 50 cash payment if the current terms of the agreement gain final approval ppComcast did not oppose the request for preliminary approval of the agreement but noted in court records that it does not agree with the facts as told by the representatives of the customers and denies all liability ppNeither a representative for the Philadelphiabased telecommunication giant nor its attorneys responded to requests for commentppThe settlement resolves 24 lawsuits filed in federal courts nationally and consolidated under one judge in Philadelphia ppThe flurry of litigation centers on a data breach that took place between Oct 16 and 19 2023 when hackers gained access to Comcastâs internal system The hack was possible because the company delayed implementing a patch to fix a vulnerability in the Citrix Systems cyber software that Comcast has relied on court records say ppCitrix warned customers of the problem and offered a solution in an Oct 10 bulletin court records say The class attorneys accuse Comcast of having failed to heed the cybercompanyâs advice allowing hackers to take advantage of the vulnerability ppThe data breach made the usernames passwords names contact information privacy questions and answers and last four digits of Social Security numbers for more than 30 million customers potentially available to hackers according to court records ppThe settlement agreement was reached following a November negotiation session after multiple attempts at mediation ppThe 1175 million would be used to compensate customers administer the settlement process that includes notifying customers and processing claims and pay attorneysâ fees The class attorneys could pocket as much as one third of the total settlement amount according to court filings but the exact amount will be decided laterppUS District Judge John Milton Young has set a final approval hearing for July Once the settlement is approved Comcast and Citrix will be released from all claims related to the data breach ppCitrixâs attorneys did not respond to a request for comment p