Posts by Ivor griffiths 8 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Dec 2007
The information Comissioner's Office advised me when I complained about a bank failing to send copies of my statements that I should ask for my bank charges refund via the Financial Ombudsmen Service (anothe QUANGO) who have actually suspended dealing with complaints until the test case is resolved.
If I hadn't been a retired impoverished lawyer I would have been stuck waiting forever to get my money back. As it is I issued a summons, got five grand and am still waiting for the statements. The ICO actually has no powers at all - they should be making sure that the victims are protected and prosecuting the pea brains responsible.
Every customer affected should issue a claim, there is no costs risk up to five grand, if there are even only a couple of thousand summonses issued they are finished.
It may not be their fault that they got hacked but their failure to consider the implications of their approach demonstrates a failure to apply basic logic to very simple problems. So my guess is that it's a straightforward case of negligence, of such crass stupidity that they have probably lost the lot: bank details, addresses, dates of birth, customer databases, phone numbers, emails, purchase history, card numbers, cvv numbers - everything. And who knows how long it has been missing. Fasthosts won't that's for sure: don't know their arses from their elbows lets face it.
As customers, many of whom may have effectively been shut down by these lamers, we should retaliate. My password still doesn't work even after they sent the postal one.
As a community of webmasters, internet businesses and hobby site owners we should make a stand and take them out. The press releases are enough to get summary judgement in my view.
Some may say that a week long delay in sending the letters out will encourage people losing thousands to ring the premium rate phone number. Some would go further and say that if a percentage of the passwords that get sent out are not working this will encourage more. Some would say the whole thing is a scam.
Not me. No. I am going to issue a summons on Tuesday morning in Lancaster County Court and seek an order making them tell me the password. I would rather give the County Court a hundred quid than Fasthosts ten pence. I can seek other disclosure as well, this will be interesting, like what was the alleged security breach then? As long as the question is relevant to my case they must answer or be in contempt and lose.
I think if enough complained to ICSTIS (I think this is the acronym), who are the regulators in the UK of premium rate numbers, they may well intervene.
It is looking as if those who say it is a premium rate phone scam, not me though, may be right.
Friday and no letter. This means it has not been posted.
I agree with a previous poster: I think they are being dishonest. They are also probably guilty of fraudulent trading. The negligent way in which they have dealt with it provides the basis of a claim. If they had worded things differently and done things differently they would not be liable for the criminal acts of a third party. However the negligence with which they have dealt with it leaves them wide open to litigation. A week's loss of revenue for all affected parties will be more money than they are worth so technically if everyone made a claim they would be forced into receivership. Anyone who pays by credit card can recover up to about £75000.00, it may have gone up in the latest Consumer Credit Act, even if they do go bust.
I think the best way to deal with it is to send them an email claim for loss of revenue based on their negligence, get back in to your account, then transfer out any domains, paying any fees to do so. Host with someone else of course.
If we all do this and they go bust everyone who has made a claim, even if not followed through (lets face it who can be arsed?) should make a complaint of fraudulent trading to the Police. I think the are guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation now as well because they have not made mention of the problem on their website. Someone should complain to the Gloucesterhire Trading Standards Office as they may be committing consumer offences as well as the Companies Act and Misrepresentation Act stuff.
I'm just glad I don't host with them anymore.
I got a letter yeaterday that was posted second class from London on Thursday. Fasthosts have not posted my letter yet. DNS is still off anyway. Intermittent connectivity, constant barrage of emails from Internetseer telling me it's on again, no off again. The only reason I want the password is to transfer out.
Given the recent publicity concerning the wooden tops at the Inland Revenue and the cost associated with posting out so may letters (probably 75p per letter) one must wonder why such a decision was made.
Fasthosts are a large and successful business, they are not fools. This is a calculated decision. Sending them by email would be no less secure and of course free.
What are the advantages of doing so? Delay.
Has anyone actually had a letter yet? No.
Why delay?
Perhaps the hackers told them they were going to shut them down and notwithstanding Police and other security involvement the hackers could not be stopped. National Security issues?
I just do not believe that Fasthosts management are as incompetent as they appear. We loathe them now but these chaps will be intelligent, business savvy operators who are used to crisis management. It makes no business ense at all for them to have done this.
But it is not just ftp, sql, httpd that is offline. It is also DNS. The whole system seems to be wide open. Anyone with even one site that is just for the kid's photos should move away, cancel the credit card used and get on with the rest of their lives.
I always use reloadable cards to pay hosters, just make sure you have s75 protection as well.
I never received an email. All my sites are off now. I had a similar problem with FTP from donhosts, moved to Dotster and they got hacked. This is a systematic attack. The UK security service MI5 has issued a warning to all major UK business to be on the look out for Chinese hacker attacks. Shutting down all the hosting companies is a pretty gpood way of shutting down the Internet.
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