IT system audit specialists mention that the website Yahoo has created to present compensation claim due to the massive data breaches (which affected more than 3 billion users worldwide) is already online, although it’s not all good news.
On this website, Yahoo notes that most users residing outside the US and Israel will not be able to request any form of compensation, and that cash payments could be much lower than expected, based on requests received by Yahoo.
The agreement, proposed in April 2019, would
take into consideration all Yahoo users residing in the US and Israel, as well
as small and medium-sized enterprises with Yahoo accounts operated between 2012
and 2016. “Approximately 896 million accounts will be included, and no
more than 194 million people”, mentioned in the original proposal, which
equates to less than one-third of the accounts affected by massive data
breaches, said the IT system audit specialists.
As previously reported, these massive breaches
compromised sensitive details such as full names, email addresses, passwords,
and more. After facing a class action lawsuit, Yahoo proposed setting up a fund
to compensate those affected, offering two years of credit monitoring services
or a cash payment for users already registered with some monitoring service.
The cash payment Yahoo offers to those affected
is $100, although the website for claiming compensation specifies that this
amount could grow to $358, or be reduced to an unspecified figure, depending on
the number of people qualify as they apply for cash payment.
Specialists in IT system audit from the
International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) point out that there are other
ways to apply for compensation from Yahoo:
- Up
to $25,000 USD can be obtained in case people show that they suffered economic
and time losses due to data breaches at Yahoo - Yahoo
could repay up to 25% of expenses made by Premium account holders between 2012
and 2016 - Yahoo
could pay up to 25% of the expenses incurred by users of its small business
email service between 2012 and 2016, without exceeding $500 USD per year
The agreement could still be amended, as the
final approval hearing will be held until April 2020. People who are still
dissatisfied with this agreement have until March next year to file claims.
