The intertubes is still the wild, wild west ...

On an entirely different front from the commentariat, the pond this morning clicked on Umbrella Entertainment, and copped this:

Yep, it was a blank white page with this bold threat at the bottom.

Now it seems unlikely that Umbrella would dob themselves in like this, or shut down their page just to promote this friendly message.

Click on the link and you get through to this page:

Seems kosher, because on the basis of the front page Umbrella hack, you'd suspect that it was a gang of Russian or Chinese hackers doing a shakedown.

Here's the happy snap of the happy crew that work at the place:

And here's the pitch:

Who we are

We are small enough to know each other’s names and passions, and yet we're large enough to be internationally known in the e-commerce industry and have deep connections around the world. We've got the reputation of a big player with the energy of a young, nimble organization and we love that - it lets us do very exciting things when we smell win/win opportunities.

AspDotNetStorefront is a forward-thrusting product company, while Vortx, under the same ownership, is the service arm which delivers design and custom development of that product, along with a wide range of hosting and online marketing services.

What we do

AspDotNetStorefront develops online shopping cart software, multi-channel feed software, and offers hosting solutions. We’re located in the Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon, but we’re often found roaming the globe in order to spread the amazing technology.

Now the pond doesn't have the first clue as to any commercial dispute between Umbrella and asp.net and the rights and wrongs thereoff, but here's the first rule.

In a commercial or legal dispute, you don't turn up and hack a site, and post your dispute for all the world to see.

A rough equivalent is roaming up to a shop with a baseball bat and asking the shop owner if they think that their windows are safe (of course these days the canny players just use slingshots and steel ball bearings to make the point).

So when the pond reads gibberish like "forward-thrusting" and being based in Rogue Valley it all seems to fit, because the tactics visibly deployed are the tactics of online thugs. 

Watch out for your knee-caps ... and the next time you hear an American clucking about the hacking Ruskis or the wicked Chinese, indulge in a little whimsical smile ...

... and if the pond goes off the air, you'll know we've had a friendly visit from that dynamic young team of American enthusiasts, purely in the business of smelling win/win opportunities ...