By Jon Bernstein, 19 July 2000 17:20
COMMENT So Powergen has apologised to its customers and promised compensation for the inconvenience caused. While silicon.com welcomes this belated recognition of errors made, many questions remain unanswered. Let's address the big two: - Why did it take 11 days to tackle the problem? As we've reported elsewhere, Powergen was first informed of the security hole on 7 July by John Chamberlain. Three days later, we contacted the company to be greeted by denials and disinterest. Subsequent enquiries were met with the same indifference. It was left to us to prove security had been breached. - Why did Powergen threaten police action against Chamberlain and silicon.com? As the story unravelled yesterday, Powergen's PR machine finally geared itself up. It accused Chamberlain of hacking into the site (clearly not true) and threatened both him and silicon.com with legal action. As today's acceptance of responsibility proves, a better course of action was surely to resolve the real security issues first and then reassure customers. In a final bitter sweet irony, Powergen plans to invite Chamberlain to help formulate future security policy. After the way he's been treated over the last 24 hours he'd be advised to have nothing to do with the offer. Having said sorry to its customers, perhaps it's time Powergen said sorry to John Chamberlain. But we won't hold our breath.
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