O'Malley
The owner of an adult entertainment website is attempting to find the people who it alleges illegally hacked into its website and stole information.
Lightspeed Media Corporation filed a petition for discovery Nov. 3 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against the Internet Service Providers that it claims knows the identities of the people who obtained passwords, then used them to break into its website.
Lightspeed Media claims it operates an adult entertainment website that is available to customers who sign up and pay a fee. The unknown hackers obtained Lightspeed's customers' passwords and were allowed access to the same content as paying members, according to the discovery.
"They could even download Petitioner's private content and disseminate that information to other unauthorized individuals," the discovery states.
Because Lightspeed does not know the identities of the people who it claims hacked into its website, it wants the defending companies to identify the perpetrators. They can do this by tracking the Internet Protocol address, which is unique for each Internet use, according to the discovery.
Companies named in the lawsuit include Internet Service Providers AT&T Internet Services, Bradley University, Cebridge Connections, Verizon Wireless, Clearwater US, Comcast Cable Holdings, Fairpoint Communications, Eastern Illinois University, Frontier Communications of America, Hargray Communications Group, Hostforweb, Hosting Services, Mediacom Communications, MKE Bridged Circuits, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, Paetec -- Starnet Division, Psinet, RCN Corporation, Sanctuary Host, Sentral Assemblies and Components, University of Illinois at Chicago, Verizon Online, Wayport and Wideopenwest Illinois.
In addition for the names of the unknown individuals, Lighspeed is asking the companies to identify their addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and media access control addresses.
It is asking the court to order the ISPs to comply with the order and for other relief it deems just.
Michael O. Malley of Carey, Danis and Lowe in Belleville will be representing it.
St. Clair County Circuit Court case number: 11-L-621.