Dear AFGE Activist,

As lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over its failure to protect employees’ personal data that led to one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history, AFGE is happy to report that a settlement of $63 million has been reached to help data breach victims recover losses.

A website has been set up at www.opmdatabreach.com for you to file a claim.

To be eligible, your personal information must have been compromised in the data breaches of OPM's electronic information systems in 2014 and 2015 or the breach of its contractor Peraton's electronic information systems in 2013 and 2014. In addition, you must have suffered an out-of-pocket expense or lost compensable time as a result of identity theft or trying to protect yourself from identity theft.  

If you have a valid claim, you will receive $700 or the actual amount of the claim, whichever is higher, up to $10,000 – unless the total amount of the all the valid claims exceeds the amount of money in the fund. Eligible claims are for economic losses because the Supreme Court ruled in FAA v. Cooper that only those claims are compensable under the Privacy Act.

In 2015, AFGE was the first organization to file a class-action lawsuit against the government for its failure to heed warnings and obey security policies, leading to the disclosure of the personal records of 21.5 million individuals. Hackers stole Social Security numbers, birth dates, fingerprints and addresses, among other sensitive personal information.  

AFGE was represented by a California law firm, Girard Sharp.  

Since then, other lawsuits have been filed. The courts consolidated all of the lawsuits and AFGE’s lawyer was selected as the lead counsel. Girard Sharp represents everyone whose personal information was stolen during the data breaches into OPM’s personnel and background investigation files.  

In addition to making a claim under the settlement, breach victims can sign up for the free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services that Congress authorized: visit https://www.opm.gov/cybersecurity/ or call 1-800-750-3004 Monday through Saturday, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Visit www.opmdatabreach.com for details of the settlement and to make a claim.

In Solidarity,

AFGE

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