Yahoo to pay $50 million to victims of data breach

Yahoo has agreed to pay $50 million to victims of the security breach of 2013 and 2014 , the mega data breach case that has affected up to 200 million US consumers and three billion accounts worldwide, according to a court filing.

In addition to this, the company will cover up to $35 million on lawyer fees related to the case and provide affected users in the US with credit monitoring services for two years.

This was the largest attack in 2013. Hackers were able to get the credentials of users' encrypted password as well as of the 3 billion users followed by 500 million credentials next year. This incident has forced users to find out alternate options like Gmail, Outlook etc. This was the worst attack ever on any mail providers.

Small business can also claim back costs for losses that happened due to the hack including identity theft, delayed tax refunds and any other issues related to data loss at the hands of the breaches. Any individual who has paid for premium Yahoo email services can claim for a 25 percent refund.

Yahoo suffered huge damage when a security breach in 2013 affected 3 billion accounts and another breach in 2014 that affected 500 million accounts. The parent company, Verizon will pay half the settlement cost while Altaba, the remaining part of Yahoo will pay the other half.

Password-sharing has become so common that databases of login information are often used by hackers to test for email-and-password combinations on retailer websites like Walmart or Amazon. After this incident, Yahoo is notifying all the affected users to change their passwords.