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Failure to Encrypt Passwords Leads to Class Action Lawsuit

On December 28, 2009, RockYou, Inc., a developer of applications for Facebook and other social networks, was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The class action complaint alleges failure to encrypt users’ e-mail addresses and passwords and was filed shortly after a hacker copied that information for 32 million RockYou users.

RockYou’s potential exposure is huge. Among the various causes of action are:

The lesson for any company that stores users’ personally identifiable information: Make sure that information is encrypted!

Dana H. Shultz, Attorney at Law +1 510-547-0545 dana [at] danashultz [dot] com
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