LinkedIn will pay $1.25 million to settle suit over password breach
LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a class-action suit that alleged the company failed to protect the passwords and private information of its premium subscriber customers.
The case dates back to June 2012 when the company reported that Russian hackers stole more than six million passwords from the social networking site, about 5% of LinkedIn's user base. Shortly thereafter, a user launched a class-action lawsuit claiming LinkedIn violated its own user agreement and privacy policy.
The suit specifically pointed out that LinkedIn failed to salt the passwords before storing them. The salt adds a dimension to the hash that makes it more difficult to uncover the protected data. The suit also referenced preliminary reports that said hackers used an SQL injection attack, which lets hackers access databases via a Web site.
