What does a company have to cough up to settle a lawsuit brought by its employees when their W-2's are leaked? $5.75 million.

One employee of Seagate, the storage giant, was duped by a phishing scam and sent out the information on 12,000 employees to the hacker.

Shortly thereafter, some employees started reporting that their social security numbers were used to file false tax returns.

"Almost immediately, the cybercriminals exploited Seagate's wrongful actions and filed fraudulent federal and state tax returns in the names of the employees," the complaint [PDF] alleges.

"Some employees have learned that the cybercriminals filed fraudulent joint tax returns, using not only the employee's social security number, but also the employee's spouse's social security number."

In the California Northern US District Court this week, Seagate said it will pay all those affected the amount of $3,500. Included in the settlement, they also agreed to pay around $42 million for insurance coverage in the event that employees become victims of identity theft.

The settlement is made to cover two years of identity theft services from credit reporting and financial services conglomerate Experian as well as any expenses the workers might incur in trying to clear their names for the fake tax returns.

Source: The Register