Motorcycle Trade magazine victim of computer hacking

Message

TC · #1 Post by TC » Wed Aug 01, 2007 12:13 am

NXGN Managing Director Mark Hopkins is awaiting sentencing following an appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Hopkins had entered a plea of not guilty to charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, but following a day of prosecution evidence changed his plea to guilty and will be sentenced on August 9th 2007.

In September 2005 ME Publishing Limited, the publisher of Motorcycle Trader and its associated website www.motorcycletrader.net was advised by its web consultancy that the website had been hacked into illegally and that a large amount of internal information had been downloaded by the hacker. The Motorcycle Trader website and other websites operated by ME Publishing and it's associated company Redcat Marketing Services had to be closed down for a number of days while web consultants traced the hacking and assessed the damage.

The web consultants advised ME Publishing that it had traced the hacking to a computer located at the offices of NXGN Limited in Solihul. NXGN is well known in the motorcycle industry for supplying various web services to companies such as Motorcycle News, British Dealer News, Yamaha, Suzuki, Triumph and Fish4Bikes amongst others.

NXGN denied hacking into the Motorcycle Trader website and so the web consultants sent a technical report to the Metropolitan Police who investigated and subsequently charged NXGN Managing Director Mark Hopkins. Hopkins again denied the charge and pleaded not guilty.

The fact that Hopkins eventually changed his plea to guilty proves that he had been lying all along.

To date, neither Mark Hopkins or NXGN have explained or apologised for the hacking or for lying about it.

Silverback · #2 Post by **Silverback** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:43 am

I can add some timeline information to this as well. As far as I can remember :

The offence was committed September 30th, 2005, which coincided nicely with Troy Corser's WSB win, and the Weston Beach Race, neither of which could be reported upon because of the hacking.

Mark Hopkins, NXGN's Managing Director, was arrested at his place of work and charged 2nd october 2006.

Mark Hopkins was bailed to appear on 13th October 2006, which was adjourned at the defence's request until 27th October 2006.

A letter to the court adjourned proceedings until 9th January 2007.

Mark Hopkins, NXGN's Managing Director failed to appear, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The defence intervened, and the warrant was cancelled. I can only assume he surrendered himself to a local police station.

Mark Hopkins then failed to appear in court, and a warrant for his arrest issued 9th Jan 2007

Mark Hopkins entered a not guilty plea, again without attendance on 23rd February 2007.

Mark Hopkins again entered a not guilty plea in court on 11th July 2007, and tried to have the case struck on a technicality. The magistrate allowed the case to continue, and Mark Hopkins changed his plea to guilty after hearing a day of testimony.

Sentencing is to take place on August 9th 2007, at Westminster Magistrates Court, Horseferry Road, Westminster.

One can only wonder at what reaction the corporates will have - google for "Mark Hopkins NXGN" and a lot of blue chips appear next to reports of his conviction. NXGN Limited were also recently acquired by Manheim, and it's also interesting to consider Mark Hopkins' future career at this point.

Samray · #3 Post by **Samray** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 10:59 am

Been following the story from time to time on newsfeeds. It did seem to go on interminably.
What a weird character he seems to be.

Silverback · #4 Post by **Silverback** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:38 am

Weird yes, although I think if you look up "arrogant" in the dictionary, you'd find his picture there... The story is far from over. NXGN's sale to Manheim is somewhat muddy since 10% of NXGN's shares are in dispute anyway, due to a wrongful dismissal of one of their senion employees. Plus there is the question of compensation to consider. I'll report back next week on the sentencing - the magistrate seemed distinctly angry with Mark, and suggested he might send the case to Crown Court as it was such a serious matter.

#5 Post by **Kwackerz** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:54 am

Cheers for that SB! Welcome BTW..

Gio · #6 Post by **Gio** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 9:16 pm

I wonder as well if NXGN have anything to do with stolen BMW's.

Okay maybe I'm clutching at straws but after reading this http://www.nxgn-ltd.com/ezweblite/publi ... RN_ID=1739 it does make me wonder

Silverback · #7 Post by **Silverback** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:09 pm

I'm confused by that - stolen BMWs ? Can you elaborate?

#8 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 2:40 pm

Ah, Youve met Gio then

Now on Motorcycle web forums the land over, there's a saying, a condition or situation, whereupon you dont understand WTF Gio is on about. Gio used to be called Twizzle, which is where this condition or situation's name came about from.

Silverback, Youve been officially 'Twizzled'

Have no fear we havent got a bloody clue what he's insinuating either. I'll give it a go however.

Gio had his nigh-on brand new BMW GS something or other stolen not long ago. He also has a healthy dislike for dealerships, as many here do, however as this is Gio, it can only be assumed that he means "Well blow me, There's a new BMW network being set up. I wonder if somehow those people managed to obtain my bike or parts thereof in order to help start that business off?"

Dont worry, also dont take offence. Everyone else is looking bewildered and bemused too

Silverback · #9 Post by **Silverback** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 10:57 am

Ok, fellas, here's the scoop. Mark Hopkins of NXGN Limited, got a pretty hard hit from the court. Bear in mind the maximum the court can inflict under the status is 6 months in prison, and £5000 in compensation plus costs.

He received 20 weeks - 5 months sentence, which was suspended after some discussion between the Court and the defence, 100 hours of community service, ordered to pay £5000 in compensation, and £2500 in Court costs.

As far as I can see from the case histories, - see http://www.computerevidence.co.uk/Cases/CMA.htm - this is the most severe sentence ever handed down for a pure Section 1 offence under the Computer Misuse Act.

I bet he wishes now he'd accepted the police caution that was offered so long ago....

Samray · #10 Post by **Samray** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:10 am

Shame the 5 months was suspended ... that would have hurt him.

Let's hope the comm service is something suitably humiliating.

Gio · #11 Post by **Gio** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:35 pm

Silverback wrote:I'm confused by that - stolen BMWs ? Can you elaborate?

Hello Simon, Hows Boxhill going?

Kwacks has done that for me.

Have you still got the Triumph and the Befexhausts?

I sold My Blackbird last year its in Brighton somewhere, don't know if its still got the decals on it tho.

Peter

#12 Post by **Kwackerz** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 12:49 pm

A punishment to suit the severity of the crime. Hopefully it will send out a message to anyone else who is contemplating such a thing.

As Sam said shame it wasnt an immediate action.

So the MD copped it. The MD has to be happy about what happens and act accordingly. Not so much micromanaging, but definately being aware of what is going on. Maybe he did fully know what was going on, maybe not. It ends up on his desk at the end of the day.

I wonder what the rest of the Internet community make of it, from a techie's point of view.

Silverback · #13 Post by **Silverback** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 1:12 pm

Well in fairness it was the MD who did the hacking, so I'd say he was pretty aware

As for the rest of the community, it's a good question, the news doesn't seem to have spread that far. Was hoping the BBC News Online would pick it up, I can but hope.

Samray · #14 Post by **Samray** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:39 pm

It is getting around a bit now.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/10 ... entencing/

Picked that link up on an international newsfeed.

K_D · #15 Post by **K_D** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:35 pm

clever enough to hack into a computer........dumb enough to leave a trail back to himself........

eejit