Sony, former workers in deal to settle lawsuit over 'Interview' hacking

REUTERS - Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc has reached a settlement agreement with nine former employees who had filed a lawsuit claiming that their personal data was stolen in a 2014 hacking tied to the studio's release of a comedy film set in North Korea, "The Interview."

The plaintiffs' have until Oct. 19 to submit a motion for preliminary approval of the proposed settlement case, according to a court filing. No additional details on the settlement were made public.

Sony Pictures declined to comment on the settlement.

The news was first reported by Hollywood and media news website deadline.com.

In June, a U.S. judge had rejected a bid by Sony Pictures, the entertainment arm of Sony Corp, to dismiss the lawsuit.

The former workers, who had sought class-action status on the suit, had said Sony's negligence caused them economic harm by forcing them to beef up credit monitoring to address their greater risk of identity theft.

The attack, which surfaced in November, wiped out massive amounts of data and led to the online distribution of email, sensitive employee data and pirated copies of new movies.

(Reporting by Lehar Maan in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)