Slashdot Mirror
Ex-Ashley Madison CTO Threatens Libel Suit Against Journalist
An anonymous reader writes: Security reporter Brian Krebs, who has been instrumental in breaking news about the Ashley Madison hack, is now being threatened by the website's former CTO with a libel suit. Contained in the leaked data was a series of emails from the ex-CTO, Raja Bhatia, to the CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company. In the emails, Bhatia noted a security hole in a competing website, saying that he downloaded their user database and was capable of modifying and exposing it. After reporting on these emails, Krebs received a letter from Bhatia's lawyer (PDF) saying the post was libelous and defamatory. They demanded a retraction, which Krebs is thus far unwilling to do.
It's been twelve years since it was coined, and yet it's unbelievable that people STILL haven't heard of the Streisand effect.
Trying to shut someone up in this age just makes the information spread much faster and wider. I wouldn't have heard of this at all if the lawsuit wasn't threatened.
I can't wait to see those AM twats get cross-examined.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Seriously, it's only a half-step above running a brothel.
A brothel is at least an honest business.
Obviously emails sent from him, on the AM servers, with log files, provided in data dumps following this incident, and reported on by accredited reporters in showing the public interest is "the reporter fabricating information and making shit up on his own"... Libel will get thrown out immediately, but defamation of character... Even if it's true, the public knowing about it and thinking that Raja Bhatia committed wholesale fraud, compromised a competitor's servers, and is an all around dick hole is still defamation of character because yesterday 99.9% of people had never heard his name, and the others had just seen his LinkedIn profile saying he was a CTO of a company making money hand over fist.
This dude works in tech - a CTO, well, assuming he's actually involved in tech, not some 'business' CTO - and thinks that this is a good idea. He's basically murdering his own reference for the future, nobody wants a bunk ass CTO who doesn't understand the internet or world at large, and has his name smeared all over (yada yada Streisand effect yada yada) but the bottom line is this: if you do shady shit, and get busted, there is to be no expectation of silence by anyone...once it's out, it explodes and that's fucking it. Touching it just makes the explosion bigger. "Lawyers", yeh I'm sure his lawyers are loving it - when they offer advice and "yeh, lets file a suit!" - they're just securing their own monetary gain...because obviously this whole thing blowing up just creates a larger vortex to funnel this fucktards money into.