It has recently been revealed that Chinese search engine Baidu, the third largest in the world, will be proceeding with its professional negligence claim against its domain register, Register.com.
Baidu is suing Register following a hacking attack on their account last January by a group calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army.
The hackers apparently contacted Register under the guise of being Baidu employees, and were subsequently given access to their private account. They then altered the Baidu server number, causing all of the search engine’s visitors to be redirected to a page displaying political messages.
Security expert Graham Cluley compared the attack to “somebody going into the telephone book and changing your phone number”. He also said that the attack could have been a lot worse; the hackers could have installed spyware or malware, which could have infected millions of Chinese computers.
Baidu, claiming that it lost millions of pounds due to the attack, is suing Register.com for professional negligence. The company originally filed seven complaints, but the court has only allowed two to be upheld.
In what is expected to be a lengthy and expensive trial – it is presumed that both parties have at least some level of professional insurance in place to cover litigation costs – the pre-trial begins next month.