Who's to Blame for Bill O'Reilly Hack? - Page 2

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The one way Nox could be on the hook is if its security was as nonexistent as the hackers claimed. "If their site was really easy to hack, they might be negligent, maybe. It's really going to depend on how poor their security was," Randazza said.

Sax concurred. "The thing that's going to be of issue here is the causation issue -- that is, what actions that allowed for the hack. If there was nothing done from a preventative point of view, is there a liability? The next step is if [Nox] found out the information was compromised, what did they do to protect the people afterwards?"

Randazza said the victims listed on Wikileaks have his sympathies. Attackers "hacked [O'Reilly's site] and posted info about nobody who had anything to do with this. It would have been real easy to black out those passwords and make those people's lives easier. Those are the people I feel bad for," he said.

O'Reilly, though, is off the hook. "I don't see how he could be liable. All he did was poke the hornet's nest," Randazza said.

Nox Nox. Who's There?

One of the most peculiar and unanswered elements of the story is how Nox wound up hosting O'Reilly to begin with. A quick scan of its home page shows an imitation of iTunes' animated Cover Flow display that lists its clients.

Nox had a tiny entry in Wikipedia that was recently removed. It said, in part, "Nox Solutions is located in Los Angeles, CA and was founded by Eric Marston and Payam Zarabi in 2001 as an independently owned, full-service e-commerce management firm. Nox offers website management including website design, creation, maintenance, hosting, marketing, promotions, customer service and product fulfillment."

Payam Zarabi's LinkedIn profile indicates he graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor's degree in Information Systems. He worked as a senior consultant for Wavebend Consulting and then a senior developer for Firstlook.com before launching Nox with Marston. Marston's LinkedIn profile said he worked for Kraft Foods and IBM as a programmer.

Sax noted that many of the clients listed, including O'Reilly, have a nationally syndicated radio show on Westwood One, one of the largest national radio networks. Other Nox clients are syndicated through Talk Radio Network and Salem Talk Radio. This could mean Westwood One gets dragged into a legal swamp, should the people exposed by the hackers feel litigious.

"This possibly could go up to Westwood One, especially if they are taking care of [the sites] and placing [talent with Nox], and they are the bigger cheese here," she noted.

When contacted regarding its association with Nox, a Westwood One spokesman told InternetNews.com he would inquire with his superiors and reply back. As of press time, there has been no response.

*Corrects prior version to indicate that O'Reilly published a warning to members on the site.