Rating service sues former member over data theft claims

Consumer rating service Angie's List is suing a rival start-up over a data theft claim.

The suit alleges that Christopher Cody, founder of Washington, D.C.-based Trustys.com, joined Angie's List as a regular member, and then used an automated bot software program to harvest service-provider reports, ratings and other information which were then used for Trustys.com.

Cheryl Reed, spokesperson for Angie's List, said: “We consider it industrial espionage. He came in to use technology to basically cut and paste reports.”

Angie's List did not put a dollar value on the damage caused by the alleged incident, but according to the Computer Security Institute, such incidents can typically cost companies up to $350,000 each in damage.

Cody's attorney Tony Paganelli disputes the allegations, and declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying: “We dispute the allegations, and we intend to defend against them vigorously.”

According to the lawsuit, through his Angie's List membership Cody accessed 9278 service-provider files from the Angie's List site using a bot program in multiple sessions. In one instance, between midnight and 2 a.m on December 3, he used the program to access 2451 profiles.

Cheryl Reed emphasised that the personal and financial information of Angie's List customers or service providers was not compromised.

See original article on scmagazineuk.com