Sony Pictures will pay up to $8 million to settle hack lawsuit with employees

Nearly a year after its devastating hack, Sony Pictures’ settlement with former employees has been made public, offering as much as $8 million to resolve the ongoing lawsuit.

According to documents filed today, the company will commit $2 million to reimburse any expenses incurred by employees protecting themselves from identity theft in the wake of the hack. An additional $2.5 million fund will reimburse actual damages from identity theft, up to $10,000 per employee. The plaintiffs’ attorney fees and service awards will also be covered by Sony Pictures, up to $3.5 million. The company will also assume the cost of two years of identity-theft protection services for employees going forward, including a hotline number specific to victims of the Sony Pictures breach.

News of the settlement broke in September, but the final dollar amount is relatively small compared to the chaos incurred by the attack. Last summer, Sony spent $15 million to settle a suit over a Playstation data breach, although that breach involved significantly more people. The settlement still has to be approved by the court, but it’s unlikely to face any difficulty.