U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who granted LinkedIn’s motion for dismissal in a $5 million class-action lawsuit led by Katie Szpyrka and Khalilah Wright, described the breach as “abstract” rather than causing actual harm. The plaintiffs had argued LinkedIn “failed to use a combination of hashing and salting to secure user passwords,” reports InfoSecurity, which led to a June 2012 data breach. Further, they argued, despite paying for premium membership, they did not receive premium security. However, Davila concluded the breach did not result in any “concrete and particularized” injury after the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate compromise of personally identifiable information. Nor, he said, was there any evidence that LinkedIn had promised further security protection for premium members.
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