The hacking and leaking of millions of LinkedIn passwords recently was probably one of the most serious security exploits in the last few days. The exploit put the account details and personal information of millions of LinkedIn users at risk. Now, an Illinois woman has brought forth a class-action lawsuit against LinkedIn, demanding $5 million because of the poor security which LinkedIn provided.
Katie Szpyrka is the woman who has brought the lawsuit against LinkedIn. Szpyrka is of the opinion that despite claiming that it follows industry standards to secure the information and accounts of the users, LinkedIn didn’t do so. She pays $26.95 for using a premium LinkedIn account.
What she means by saying that LinkedIn didn’t follow industry standards is this: most organizations make use of an encryption technique called salting which adds an additional layer of security to the passwords. LinkedIn, after it admitted the breach and prompted the users to change their passwords, officially admitted that it didn’t make use of this technique and that is now using this technique to make user passwords more secure.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, is of the opinion that Szpyrka’s claims are without merit. According to a LinkedIn spokesperson, “No member account has been breached as a result of the incident, and we have no reason to believe that any LinkedIn member has been injured. Therefore, it appears that these threats are driven by lawyers looking to take advantage of the situation.”
Currently, Szpyrka is demanding a jury trial which would involve different individuals and organizations who were affected by this recent breach of passwords.
Source: ZDNet
Courtesy: CNET
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