Posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
A federal judge in Kentucky has granted preliminary approval to settle a class-action lawsuit relating to a data breach that pinned millions of Countrywide Financial customers against the mortgage company.
Last week’s settlement, which still must undergo a final approval hearing, would provide free credit monitoring for up to 17 million people whose personal data was exposed, according to published reports. To be eligible, victims must have used Countrywide before July 1, 2008. In addition, participants are eligible to receive up to $50,000 per incident of identity theft, though Countrywide representatives have denied that anyone fell victim to fraud.
