CANADIAN COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY TO SELLING STOLEN DATA

The RCMP says a Canadian-based company that peddled an illicit trove of 1.5 billion user names and associated passwords has pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Defiant Tech Inc. admitted in court Friday to trafficking in identity information and possession of property obtained by crime a year after charges were laid in the probe, the Mounties said in a news release. The investigation began three years ago, when the RCMP learned the website Leakedsource was being hosted on servers in Quebec. The website, now shut down, had a total of some three billion pieces of data for sale, earning the company about $247,000. The database was assembled using personal information stolen by hackers from domains like networking site Linkedin and extramarital-affair hub ashleymadison.com, the police force said.