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Date published
June 22, 2012
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Professional social network Linkedin faces a class action lawsuit from a user for failing to protect private data following a security breach that saw millions of its users’ password compromised.
Premium LinkedIn member Katie Szpryka claims the website didn’t do enough to “safeguard its users’ digitally stored and personally identifiable information, including e-mail addresses, passwords, and login credentials”. So she’s suing it.
Szpryka claims in a complaint that the company failed to use Industry Standard Protocols to protect the sensitive information, and demands a hefty $5 million in damages to make up for it.
When we asked it whether it was true, LinkedIn confirmed that the lawsuit had been filed against it over the data loss.
“We don’t believe any member account has been compromised as a result of the password theft, and we have no reason to believe that any LinkedIn member has been injured,” according to a LinkedIn spokesperson.
LinkedIn said it believes the complaint filed by Szpryka is driven by lawyers looking to take advantage of the situation.
“We believe these claims are without merit, and we will defend the company vigorously against suits trying to leverage third-party criminal behaviour,” it added.
More than 6.5 million unsalted passwords belonging to members were released by a hacker who posted a link to them on a hacking web site. LinkedIn sent emails to members whose details were compromised asking them to begin a password change process.
Shortly after the breach, LinkedIn was criticized for the way it handled the security incident, with some of its members complaining that it didn’t immediately issue an alert.
This article was originally published on the Inquirer.