Digital River Sues Over Theft Of Data On Nearly 200,000 Customers

E-commerce company Digital River has filed suit against a 19-year-old New York man who allegedly attempted to sell a list of nearly 200,000 of its customers to a Colorado marketing firm for $500,000.

According to a news report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Digital River obtained a secret court order last month to block Eric Porat of Brooklyn from selling, destroying, altering, or distributing the customer data. Digital River suspects that the information was stolen by hackers in New Delhi, India, possibly with help from a contractor working for Digital River.

Porat has said he got the information from India, but won't say how or from whom, the report says.

"I fully suspect that Mr. Porat hacked the hacker," said Christopher Madel, an attorney with Robins, Kaplan, Miller, and Ciresi who's overseeing Digital River's investigation.

Digital River filed the lawsuit under seal on May 13 listing Porat and his company, Affiliads, as defendants and demanding to know how they obtained Digital River's data and what they've done with it.

The data was originally gathered by companies that offer "affiliated marketing" programs, a practice in which businesses pay a commission to affiliates who post links on the Internet that drive customers to participating companies, the report says.

Porat allegedly tried to sell the data to direct marketing firm Media Breakaway, which initially turned him down, according to the report. When he persisted, Media Breakaway reported Porat and agreed to help the FBI and Digital River to track him down.

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