A sticky situation at ACS:Law

Readers' comments (11)

• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 5:30 pm

  There was no 'hacking'. The ACS:Law website was subjected to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack which took it offline. When ACS attempted to restore the site, they exposed the files to the public.
  This leak is due to ACS' incompetence and disregard for data protection laws, not hackers.

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• David Miles | 28-Sep-2010 5:31 pm

  It was not a hack - a group performed a DDoS attack - when the server came backup and was restored there was a full email backup for anyone to download - which was pretty stupid of ACS Law

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• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 5:40 pm

  Newsflash. There are many innocent people dragged into this grubby story. Certainly, as a 40 something woman, I am not one of your porn "connoisseurs" but rather an innocent victim being bullied by ACS.
  Don't generalise an cause the innocent people more stress.

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• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 5:48 pm

  They weren't hacked. Their site was under a DDos attack and at a given point when they tried to restore the site the emails poped up for anyone browsing the site.

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• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 7:16 pm

  Very amusing sir. Though on a serious note, I hope we will see some comments from the law profession, not just about the data breach, but the firm's tactics of threats and intimidation and harassment of ordinary citizens.
  Many people have been paying up because they don't know the ins and outs of the law, because they are scared by the threats they will be pursued for even larger sums (running into thousands) if they go to the courts, when most can't even afford to hire a solicitor in the first place.
  Many people have paid not due to guilt, but from fear and ignorance, while the legal profession has turned a blind eye to the rogues within it, damaging its reputation.

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• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 10:09 pm

  You're making the assumption that it's only men who download porn.
  Not the case, m'lud.

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• Anonymous | 28-Sep-2010 11:48 pm

  "had its website hacked" - bollocks it did - the stupid idiots left a backup on their web server in full public view for anyone to pick up. That's not hacking, that's browsing. Call yourselves "lawyers" indeed.

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• Richard Moorhead | 29-Sep-2010 12:19 pm

  This case raises a broader issue about how far lawyers should go to advance their clients' interests in the internet age.
  I've done a brief blog for anyone interested in the ethical position...
  http://lawyerwatch.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/acs-law-%E2%80%93professional-ethics-in-the-internet-age/

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• Anonymous | 2-Oct-2010 4:47 pm

  QUOTE "only Sky Broadband customers who had downloaded and shared pornography online were at risk of being among those exposed". What happened to using the word 'alleged'? In any case, the leaked data shows the name and address of the bill payer for the suspected broadband account, not the person or persons suspected of downloading/sharing porn. The underlying truth of the matter is that the methods used to determine the alleged suspects is extremely shaky from a technical point of view and the process of mass mailing, threats and bullying to fill the coffers of a money hungey solicitor are as distasteful as they are unethical.

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• Anonymous | 3-Oct-2010 2:26 pm

  Surely, apart from the SRA, and the ICO, he must be worried about people pursuing their own private actions

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