Sarah Mirando  |  June 18, 2012

Category: Legal News

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LinkedInIt was only a matter of time, but LinkedIn has finally been hit with a class action lawsuit for failing to protect the passwords of more than 120 million users when the website was hacked earlier this month.

According to the LinkedIn class action lawsuit, the social network failed to encrypt its users’ “personally identifiable information,” including email addresses, passwords and login credentials. After retrieving this data, the hackers publicly posted over 6 million LinkedIn user’s passwords online on June 6. Three days later, the class action lawsuit says, the company “admitted that it was not handling user data in accordance with best practices.”

The class action lawsuit claims LinkedIn stored users’ passwords in an “outdated hashing function” that was published by the National Security Agency in 1995.

“Because LinkedIn used insufficient encryption methods to secure the user data, hackers were able to easily decipher a large number of the passwords,” the class action lawsuit says. “Had LinkedIn used proper encryption methods, and a hacker were able to penetrate LinkedIn’s network, he would be limited in his ability to inflict harm.”

LinkedIn announced the hack on June 6, but the announcement was “too little too late,” the class action lawsuit says.

“LinkedIn failed to use a modern hashing and salting function, and therefore drastically exacerbated the consequences of a hacker by bypassing its outer layer of security,” the complaint states. “In so doing, defendant violated its privacy policy’s promise to comply with industry standard protocols and technology for data security.”

The LinkedIn class action lawsuit is seeking to represent two classes consisting of all individuals and entities in the U.S. who had a LinkedIn account on or before June 6, 2012, and all LinkedIn Class Members who paid a monthly fee to LinkedIn for an upgraded account.

It is seeking injunctive relief, damages, attorneys’ fees and court costs.

A copy of the LinkedIn Hack Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Katie Szpyrka v. LinkedIn Corporation, Case No. 12-cv-3088, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

UPDATE: A California federal judge gave final approval to the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement on Sept. 15, 2015.

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2 thoughts onLinkedIn Hack Class Action Lawsuit

  1. Deandra Buckner says:

    I was not aware of this suit. Am I still eligible to receive payment?

  2. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: A California federal judge gave final approval to the LinkedIn user privacy class action settlement on Sept. 15, 2015.

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