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NotPetya Ransomware Victims Preparing Lawsuit Against Ukrainian Software Firm (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Bleeping Computer: The Juscutum Attorneys Association, a Ukrainian law firm, is rallying NotPetya victims to join a collective lawsuit against Intellect-Service LLC, the company behind the M.E.Doc accounting software -- the point of origin of the NotPetya ransomware outbreak. The NotPetya ransomware spread via a trojanized M.E.Doc update, according to Microsoft, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Cisco, ESET, and Ukrainian Cyber Police. A subsequent investigation revealed that Intellect-Service had grossly mismanaged the hacked servers, which were left without updates since 2013 and were backdoored on three different occasions. On Tuesday, Ukrainian Cyber Police confirmed that M.E.Doc servers were backdoored on three different occasions in an official document. The company is now using this document as the primary driving force behind its legal action. Juscutum says that victims must pay all court fees, must provide evidence or help with the collection of evidence, and agree to a 30% cut in the case of any awarded damages. The lawsuit is in its incipient stages. Juscutum representatives are currently spreading their message and encouraging victims to join the lawsuit via social media posts and articles in local Ukrainian press.
says it all
The only ones who win are the (Ukranian) lawyers. Nice.
so I can't be too sympathetic to them. The should have known better.
So a bunch of companies that fell victim to ransomware due to their poor IT practices are suing another company because it had similarly poor IT practices?
Borderline insane lack of proper cybersecurity measures here is commonplace. Hitting just one company won't help if 90% of population is sitting with cracked windows 7 machines
Russia is hectoring the Ukraine every chance it gets.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Ambulance chasing intensifies
The only ones who win are the (Ukranian) lawyers. Nice.
I haven't been to Ukraine in a decade so my perceptions are not up to date, but in the previous decade the Ukrainian judicial system had a lot of corruption. You want a specific verdict? Just get to the judge in private, "accidentally" leave a bag of sufficient cash, and then the trial mysteriously always seems to go your way. I've even heard from sources I trusted, although I could not personally verify the stories, that it was even possible to bribe your way out of a murder charge. I can tell you that twice I was in a car as a passenger when the car was pulled over for a "violation" the policeman made up on the spot and after a payment equivalent to about $10 US was made, the car that just moments ago simply had to be pulled over was suddenly OK to leave. Good luck to those suing, but my guess is that the company will pay the judge as quickly as possible and this isn't going to end well for the plaintiffs.