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Law Firm Facing Investigation After Details of 5,000 Broadband Users are Leaked to Pirate Bay

By - Source: Tom's Hardware US | B 60 comments

Yesterday it emerged that the personal details, including full names and home addresses, of more than 5,000 Sky broadband customers had been posted online. The BBC's Daniel Emery reports that this list was compiled by law firm ACS:Law and also contains details about pornographic content the broadband users are accused of pirating. The list appeared online after 4Chan took down ACS:Law's website as part of its recent "Operation Payback is a Bitch" DDoS attacks.

Earlier this month, 4Chan targeted several organizations dedicated to putting an end to piracy. Though ACS:Law was among those hit with DDoS attacks orchestrated by 4Chan users -- TorrentFreak reports that the London-based law firm has been making money working to identify filesharers and recoup settlement money for copyright holders -- the head of ACS:Law, Andrew Crossley, was unperturbed by the DDoS attack and had no qualms about telling that to the media.

"It was only down for a few hours," Crossley told the Register. "I have far more concern over the fact of my train turning up 10 minutes late or having to queue for a coffee than them wasting my time with this sort of rubbish."

4Chan didn't take kindly to the fact that Mr. Crossley was so unaffected by their attempts to cause him some distress and late last week, a leak was posted to the Pirate Bay containing 1,000 confidential ACS:Law e-mails, along with the unencrypted list of Sky broadband users. Mr. Cossley told the BBC his firm had been "subject to a criminal attack to its systems" and that he had informed the police.

While having your name and home address included on a list of pirates supposedly in the business of sharing pornography is bad enough, it's probably worse if you're not even pirating pornography to begin with. An August investigation by the BBC discovered that many people on the receiving end of settlement demands from ACS:Law claimed they were wrongly accused of filesharing by the firm,. What's more, a UK consumer Watchdog said they had received a number of complaints from people saying the same thing.

Daniel Emery writes that though Mr. Cossley refused to comment on the leaked internal emails, he did confirm that those on the list might not have pirated any content.

"All our evidence does is identify an internet connection that has been utilized to share copyright work," he told BBC. "In relation to the individual names, these are just the names and addresses of the account owner and we make no claims that they themselves were sharing the files," he explained.

Early this morning, the Information Commissioner confirmed that it was investigating the matter.

"The question we will be asking is how secure was this information and how it was so easily accessed from outside," said Christopher Graham. "We'll be asking about the adequacy of encryption, the firewall, the training of staff and why that information was so public facing."

Graham said that his position as ICO allows him to impose a fine of up to half a million pounds (just under $790,000) if a company is found to have breached the Data Protection Act.

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Top Comments
  • 27 Hide
    THEfog101 , September 29, 2010 3:29 AM
    its really starting to get hot now, the question is 'who is more determined to win?'
  • 27 Hide
    nforce4max , September 29, 2010 3:26 AM
    "operation payback" is fitting and this is why companies shouldn't log peoples activities online.
  • 22 Hide
    TheWhiteRose000 , September 29, 2010 4:52 AM
    I Love 4chan even more now.

Other Comments
    Display all 60 comments.
  • 27 Hide
    nforce4max , September 29, 2010 3:26 AM
    "operation payback" is fitting and this is why companies shouldn't log peoples activities online.
  • 27 Hide
    THEfog101 , September 29, 2010 3:29 AM
    its really starting to get hot now, the question is 'who is more determined to win?'
  • 18 Hide
    soundping , September 29, 2010 3:44 AM
    Pirate Porn.
  • 8 Hide
    shaun_shaun , September 29, 2010 3:49 AM
    I m sure those Law Firm people using Pirate Bay more than anyone!!!!
  • -4 Hide
    duk3 , September 29, 2010 4:09 AM
    I read this as "Law Firm Facing Investigation After Deaths of 5,000 Broadband Users are Linked to Pirate Bay"
  • 5 Hide
    dark_knight33 , September 29, 2010 4:18 AM
    I wonder what Andrew DLs while he is at home? Nobody is innocent, and the prosecutors of witch hunts are usually even more guilty than the people they try to burn. This guy is a scumbag of the first degree, and I hope that this is finally enough to put him down. After they snatch his license to practice, he'll be less concerned about how long he has to wait in line for coffee, and more concerned about how many people he has to server coffee to so he can pay his bills.
  • 2 Hide
    lashton , September 29, 2010 4:36 AM
    copyright holder of porn, what if your ex GF appeared online who hold that copyright?
  • 22 Hide
    TheWhiteRose000 , September 29, 2010 4:52 AM
    I Love 4chan even more now.

  • 7 Hide
    randomizer , September 29, 2010 5:12 AM
    He won't be worried about that coffee any more.
  • 2 Hide
    rantoc , September 29, 2010 5:43 AM
    Hope it ends up that he beeing worried he can't afford that coffe. Having a "list of suspects" (judging by the "evidence" statement) so easiley accessed should be considered criminal! Bring out the Justice!
  • -5 Hide
    toastninja17 , September 29, 2010 6:27 AM
    "or having to queue for a coffee"
    Really? Are...are you seriously saying that? That's muhfuggin' PATHETIC.
    YOU CAN WAIT FOR YOUR DAMN COFFEE, WOW.
  • -6 Hide
    maigo , September 29, 2010 7:44 AM
    lol, encryption and firewalls aren't any use against the "internet"
  • 2 Hide
    Travis Beane , September 29, 2010 7:53 AM
    dark_knight33I wonder what Andrew DLs while he is at home? Nobody is innocent, and the prosecutors of witch hunts are usually even more guilty than the people they try to burn. This guy is a scumbag of the first degree, and I hope that this is finally enough to put him down. After they snatch his license to practice, he'll be less concerned about how long he has to wait in line for coffee, and more concerned about how many people he has to server coffee to so he can pay his bills.

    Witch hunts are bad, mkay.
    Some bigot burned one of my ancestors alive because she was accused of witchcraft (wonderful part of one of my uncles being a historian).

    Unfortunately, many of these people participating are just doing it for the lulz, while the firms are doing it for money. Guess which usually wins?
  • 5 Hide
    cp8427 , September 29, 2010 8:31 AM
    Bless your heart 4Chan.
  • 7 Hide
    Wolygon , September 29, 2010 8:38 AM
    They deserve a lot worse then this for demanding 500 pounds from innocent people.
  • 0 Hide
    hemelskonijn , September 29, 2010 9:08 AM
    Quote:
    "The question we will be asking is how secure was this information and how it was so easily accessed from outside," said Christopher Graham. "We'll be asking about the adequacy of encryption, the firewall, the training of staff and why that information was so public facing."


    There is nothing that will secure there outlook mailboxes from a friendly social engineer that just happens to backup the content. No matter how well you train your staff the "guy" suddenly appearing to make sure the security works the or fixes that print to letter format in stead of A4 or vice versa or the flux capacitor runs at full speed for all i care will always talk a way inside and get what he needs.
  • 2 Hide
    distanted , September 29, 2010 10:47 AM
    I'm guessing NOT publishing the names and addresses of the porn pirates was probably their best leverage for getting people to pay up...wonder what plan B is...
  • 0 Hide
    gorehound , September 29, 2010 12:03 PM
    USCG you are next morons.and it would be great to post their internal emails for the world to see.

    Boycott Hollywood !!! Buy stuff used !!!
  • 4 Hide
    enzo matrix , September 29, 2010 12:07 PM
    This just in: irresponsible Law firm keeps important and confidential data on computers with access to the internet.
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