ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

[mr.ton]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

The credit reference agencies will soon face the wrath of the public as well in my view - they've gotten away with being a law unto themselves for far too long now.

[mr.ton]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

The titles of some of these things are hillarious, such as "Gangland creme pie 5" :lol: (dont tell me there was another 4 volumes before then? :tinysmile_aha_t

[Amethyst]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

I daren't comment

[mr.ton]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Everytime i type in a postcode now, it comes back with a message saying "too many people are searching" msl:

[shamen]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

The titles of some of these things are hillarious, such as "Gangland creme pie 5" :lol: (dont tell me there was another 4 volumes before then? :tinysmile_aha_t

LOL that sounds scary!

[Differentjudge]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

can some one send me a link to the list....ive long suspected the solicitor at optima is the type of person who would watch such films...

[CYNthesys]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

where is the postcode link please

[TUTTSI]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010...haring-acs-law


Law firm could face £500,000 fine over data breach

Personal details of thousands of Britons accused of illicit filesharing leaked from ACS:Law website

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• Josh Halliday
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 28 September 2010 16.04 BST
• larger | smaller
• Article history

The Information Commissioner could levy a potentially ruinous fine of up to £500,000 on the London law firm from which the personal details of more than 8,000 Sky broadband customers, 400 Plusnet customers and 5,000 Britons accused of illicit filesharing have leaked in the past few days.
The details were exposed in files on the website belonging to ACS:Law, a firm of solicitors which has attracted the ire of a number of online forums due to its aggressive approach to people accused by its clients of filesharing. The site was the target of a "denial of service" attack over the weekend which made it collapse – and the files, which would normally be hidden from unauthorised access, became visible when the site was brought back online.
If the Information Commissioner determines that the data exposure was through ACS:Law's fault in operating its website, rather than directly as the result of hacking, then it could levy a fine against the company.
Alex Hanff, of the pressure group Privacy International, said the data breach was "one of the worst ever in the UK" and that the group has begun a civil case against the firm over it.
While ACS:Law's revenues are not made public, it is believed that the maximum fine could be crippling to the company's business.
ACS:Law has come under intense scrutiny from consumer watchdogs and industry bodies for its methods of tracking and pursuing broadband users, and a number of customers are preparing to take the company to court on a harassment charge, the Guardian understands.
The company apparently works from lists of alleged infringers who have been tracked from file downloads to computers' IP addresses; physical names and addresses are then obtained by contacting the relevant internet service provider (ISP). But this is not a surefire method of identifying infringers.
Today, the online advocacy organisation Open Rights Group warned that the "unwarranted private surveillance" of people accused of downloading is a direct outcome of the Digital Economy Act [DEA]. Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, told the Guardian: "ACS:Law appears to be preparing to use DEA processes to target filesharers and Ofcom's code is wide open for them using that process, so that's a massive concern. This is all pretty terrible because, to be frank, Ofcom's system is going to throw up these situations as they're allowing private companies to exploit them."
Killock called ACS:Law's methods – in which a letter is sent to the person at the address it claims to have identified, demanding payment often of several hundred pounds for copyright infringement – as "notorious". He suggested that the company likely finds success in embarrassing people into paying the fine, even if they are innocent. The company's leaked records showed a list of more than 5,000 people it suspects of downloading pornographic films.
ACS:Law had no comment when contacted by the Guardian.
Hundreds of people contacted by the company claim to have been misidentified and the British Phonographic Industry has refused to endorse ACS:Law's approach, prompting fears that the self-certification framework put in place by the Digital Economy Act and Ofcom allows no redress for the accused. A number of customers who claim to have been falsely accused of downloading are preparing to take the law firm to court over harassment. The company also faces a disciplinary tribunal after a long-running investigation into its practices by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
Killock said: "The BPI [British Phonographic Industry] is also calling to have parts of the evidential system kept secret, but this incident shows that we need complete transparency in the way that evidence is gathered and the problems that everyone highlighted about privacy impact of the Digital Economy Act.
"We have private companies surveilling people without knowledge, collecting data and matching it with people through court orders. This has huge implications."
Tony Dyhouse, director of cyber security at the Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network, said the apparent unreliability of the evidence gathered by private companies such as ACS:Law is grounds for a new wave of legal protection for the falsely accused. "It's important to realise that IP addresses are a very unreliable way of attributing guilt to an individual in such cases," he told the Guardian. "Very few people have static IP addresses and it is also very easy to use someone else's computer if you gain access to their password, or can log into an unsecured wireless connection down the street. IP addresses are usually given out for a short period from a pool. They are easily faked.
"This is a perfect example of why the law needs to be changed in this country to allow victims of data breaches to sue for compensation on grounds of defamation, not just financial loss. At the moment, you can only seek compensation for loss of reputation once financial loss has been proven. This can't be right. Imagine the consequences for a school teacher who erroneously appeared on this list."

[Zazen.Warrior]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

where is the postcode link please

It says this now:

Google appear to have blacklisted the API keys which I use to perform postcode searches.
As a consequence, this site no longer works.

Thanks for all the interest anyway. See you next time something fun happens.
gzipped SQL of latitude/longitude data

[Zazen.Warrior]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Sky suspends co-operation with anti-piracy firm


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...m-2092208.html

[Amethyst]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Goldeneye Int. (from CAG - seem to be trying it on as well) Reg'd 16th June 2010

Golden Eye International
GoldeneyeInt.com - registrant details hidden

[debtisbad]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Did he get paid for saying that?

[Amethyst]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

ACS:Law email leak FAQ

Interesting FAQ from Plusnet regarding the DPA breaches

[dad]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Sky suspends co-operation with anti-piracy firm


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...m-2092208.html

And well they might, after all why did ACS have the details of ALL sky's broadband customers. On the face of it Sky may have some questions to answer if the ICO investigates properly, like:

1. Was it necessary for ACS to have all Sky's subscribers details?

2. Did Sky assure itself that ACS had appropriate technical safeguards in place before handing over all this data?

There may well turn out to be egg on a lot of faces before this is over.

dad

[Amethyst]

Re: ACS Law - embarassed and cracked wide open

Was it ALL Sky's BB custs Dad then? Ouch.

Plusnet have been quite clear in detailing how, when etc the information was given to ACS, and was apparently only due to a court order.

Are these court orders publicly available ? Do plusnet defend or are they auto granted to anyone that asks ? I'm not entirely sure how it works. Ie If someone wanted to sue someone here for something they would go to court to obtain the IP and email (as thats all we hold) and then go to court again to get the address / name info of the IP's service provider (like plusnet/virgin etc) ?

Why if they went to court to get Plusnets customer details have they not done the same with Virgin or BT customers?

Virgin state they refused to give info to ACS - was this the IP info or useage info (identigying the IPs that downloaded stuff) ?

Wouldnt the IP info come from the sites which things are downloaded from (or as pirate sites are these all hidden) ?

(and I do understand that most of the people letter'd are completely innocent of anything either because their IP address is same as other peoples, is unsecured and used by others or ACS just letter bombed any person they happened to have an IP and address for (by the sounds of it like SKy custs) ?

Lots of questions there sorry.