Bull-Riding Lawyer Indicted For Allegedly Launching Cyberattacks Against His Critics
Is this really a cyberattack?
Bradley Pistotnik is a Kansas personal injury attorney whose local commercials inform accident victims that they should give him a call so he can get them what they deserve. It’s pretty standard legal advertising fare.
Except he’s riding the world’s calmest bull while he does it. This sets up a number of tortured double entendres that plague the souls of Wichita residents just trying to enjoy a nice evening of Wheel of Fortune in peace.
For example, “Don’t get bucked by the insurance company… Call in the Bull!”
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Or, “hogtie the greedy insurance company” if you’d prefer.
Anyway, Bradley Pistotnik is also on the receiving end of some bad reviews, which isn’t uncommon in this world. But in a ten-count indictment, prosecutors say Pistotnik didn’t like the reviews and decided to “Call in the Coordinated Cyberattack.”
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The indictment says that Pistotnik and [VIRAL Artificial Intelligence co-founder David] Dorsett are responsible for cyberattacks on Leagle.com, Ripoffreport.com and JaburgWilk.com. The indictment accuses Dorsett of filling website in-boxes with threats.
“One of the emails read: ‘Remove this page and we stop’ and ‘if you don’t remove it we will begin targeting your advertisers,’” the statement said.
Is that a cyberattack? What do we mean by “filling”? If he’s just badgering them it’s annoying but not an attack. But if we’re talking about a bot deluging them with emails, that’s another story. The number of emails sent is conspicuously absent from the indictment.
Indeed, the indictment suggests the government isn’t concerned about the emails to the review sites themselves, but consider the phrasing “targeting your advertisers” as a threat to a computer. This is, probably, a good place to note that the CFAA is an absurd law that makes sneezing in the direction of a computer a felony. Perhaps the government has amassed evidence of a plan to shut down advertisers with a string of viruses, but based on the quoted email, that sounds like a boycott and not a vicious cyberassault.
For Pistotnik’s part, he thinks the indictment is… ugh… “bull.” His attorney Steve Robison gave this statement to the Wichita Eagle:
We have known about these allegations for more than two years. We responded and cooperated more than two years ago, and we shared the results of our investigation with the authorities over two years ago, in which we gave more information than frankly they had. … We believed the matter had been concluded, and we are surprised to see these same allegations resurfacing. We denied the allegations then and now.
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U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister is new to the job, maybe digging up this dormant case is a sign of some shifting priorities in that office. In any event, this will be an interesting case to watch.
Wichita lawyer Bradley Pistotnik indicted in alleged cyberattacks against critics [Wichita Eagle]
Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.
