Which internationally renowned terrorist group with a 3 letter abbreviation did this?
American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
31–40 of 301 posts
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
They did something; they found someone else to blame: "The management claims it was not legally required to do so at the time, based on advice it received from the law firm Hogan Lovells." Although a company the size of booking.com should have its own qualified legal department, so that may not shield them from being liable...
> Although a company the size of booking.com should have its own qualified legal department, so that may not shield them from being liable... How does retaining outside counsel as opposed to employing internal counsel have any bearing on liability? Asking genuinely. I'm not an attorney.
Even if they have internal counsel (I haven't checked but I'm sure a company as large as Booking.com does), for decisions which have for reputational harm, it's useful to lean on advice from X prestigious third party.
The same goes for using consultants. It's not just about deferring blame for a backlash but lending an air of objectivity and professionalism to the decision(s) made by management.
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#33This isn’t surprising to me. I know lots of people who work for this company in the Netherlands, and I’ve heard a lot of inside stories about the questionable business practices that go on there. Starting at the very top, with the fraudulent marketing lies to sell you rooms because there’s only X number of rooms left, which is entirely bogus, and for which the courts have punished them, if I recall. They’re not inter…
Booking.com is the poster child of 'dark UX patterns' like that.
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#34Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds pragmatic, I wonder when this approach will backfire though.
I bet the attitude would have been very different had spying been done by China, Russia, Israel, or even the Netherlands itself.
Depends on whether they see it as competition. Given their market share, I don't believe they do. They're aimed at a western market.
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
They did something; they found someone else to blame: "The management claims it was not legally required to do so at the time, based on advice it received from the law firm Hogan Lovells." Although a company the size of booking.com should have its own qualified legal department, so that may not shield them from being liable...
> Although a company the size of booking.com should have its own qualified legal department, so that may not shield them from being liable... How does retaining outside counsel as opposed to employing internal counsel have any bearing on liability? Asking genuinely. I'm not an attorney.
More to the point, I don't understand how is this even an excuse? This sounds like invoking ignorance of the law as defense.
"But your honor, Joe McLawyer told me it's perfectly legal for me to shoot my neighbor. I can't be held responsible!"
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds pragmatic, I wonder when this approach will backfire though.
I bet the attitude would have been very different had spying been done by China, Russia, Israel, or even the Netherlands itself.
It would have turned into one of the hundreds of articles about Russian, Chinese, Iranian, Ukrainian, North Korean, etc. hackers meant to solidify people's world view that we have a "good side" and a "bad side" of the world. The reality is that we have a "bad side" and a "worse side" but that's a hard pill to swallow for the regular person. Hence the deluge of articles meant to "straighten up" the view.
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#38This isn’t surprising to me. I know lots of people who work for this company in the Netherlands, and I’ve heard a lot of inside stories about the questionable business practices that go on there. Starting at the very top, with the fraudulent marketing lies to sell you rooms because there’s only X number of rooms left, which is entirely bogus, and for which the courts have punished them, if I recall. They’re not inter…
Booking.com is the poster child of 'dark UX patterns' like that.
BooKing.com is one of the biggest Perl shops in the world.
They're desperate to hire lots of willing Perl programmers, so they have to set the bar low.
And inexperienced programmers cause lots of security problems.
Edit: My point is about the moral flexibility of BooKing.com, which is well established and widely known, not good Perl programmers, who are rare, hard to hire, and extremely expensive (especially by Netherlands programmer salary rates).
And to jacquesm's point about plants: All any intelligence service has to do to place a plant at BooKing.com is fake them up a good looking resume full of Perl experience, and Bob's your U.N.C.L.E.!
Edit2: yes xxs, downvoting's probably from royalists offended at the thought of one of the Netherland's biggest tech companies has been mocking their King. Good Perl programmers can take a joke. ;)
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bet the attitude would have been very different had spying been done by China, Russia, Israel, or even the Netherlands itself.
Depends on whether they see it as competition. Given their market share, I don't believe they do. They're aimed at a western market.
They are quite active in Asia including China.
Re: American spy hacked Booking.com, company stayed silent
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Booking.com is the poster child of 'dark UX patterns' like that.
BooKing.com is one of the biggest Perl shops in the world. They're desperate to hire lots of willing Perl programmers, so they have to set the bar low. And inexperienced programmers cause lots of security problems. Edit: My point is about the moral flexibility of BooKing.com, which is well established and widely known, not good Perl programmers, who are rare, hard to hire, and extremely expensive (especially by Nethe…
Are Perl programmers generally more morally flexible than others?