Torguard filed a complaint Friday against its VPN provider NordVPN in the Middle District of Florida. The filed documents allege that NordVPN has been guilty of a series of extremely serious professional misconduct. These charges include a successful denial-of-service (DDoS) distribution on Black Friday, mistakenly obtaining and using confidential information and secret TorGuard trade secrets to blackmail the company and force a third party to keep it quiet. The charges are based on Panama-based NordVPN's alleged control of a Canadian web hosting company called c-Seven Media Inc.
NordVPN issues explained
We reached out to NordVPN for feedback on the trial. A NordVPN spokesperson provided us with the following statement, which is posted verbatim below. "All the accusations are totally fabricated. TorGuard (though probably in error) has even filed a lawsuit against a Canadian web design firm, which we have never heard of. We received information that led us to look for the TorGuard server configuration file available on the Internet. Then we noticed that one of their servers was left completely unprotected and accessible to everyone. It contained private keys, scripts and a lot of extremely sensitive information that, if misused, could have caused serious damage to Torguard and its customers. we disclosed the vulnerability with the best intentions. It's a normal practice and the right thing to do, but they decided to sue for blackmail. We didn't even want to make it public. We look forward to the next process. Also, we have no choice but to take countermeasures." A blog at NordVPN's website details Torguard's allegations. Not surprisingly, both sides provide totally different aspects of the story. The only thing they agree on is that there have been contacts between the two companies, but from there, their scenarios diverge.