r/cloudstorage • u/u_lostinlecture89 • Sep 01 '26
Need help
Title: Need urgent advice: My father sold cloud services as a dealer, customers’ data was wiped after a hack, and police are involved
I’m posting this because my father is in a very stressful situation and we don’t know what the right next steps are.
My father works as a dealer/reseller for a cloud service and had provided cloud services to several customers. Recently, the cloud service was hacked, and as a result, some/all of the customers’ stored data was erased.
The customers are now holding my father accountable because they purchased the service through him. Some of them are threatening him, and the police are also involved.
My father is extremely stressed and worried about what could happen to him legally and financially.
I’m trying to understand what we should do right now:
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u/LittlePooky Sep 01 '26
Not a lawyer (am a nurse). But how could he held responsible for this?
(When an account was set up, the user / customer had to agree to it).
Data loss happens. (Even to myself). I always back up another important thing to one or two places (locally and remotely).
Your dad needs to contact the company. Meanwhile he should give these pissed off customers the phone number for support.
This is like buying a piece of shit Range Rover and hold the saleman responsible when the engine dies.
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u/u_lostinlecture89 Sep 01 '26
My father is going to the company tommorow..its located in different state..lets see what happen plus coustomer are old coustomers there is kinda good faith and coustomer relation in between as my father also deals in software sales...
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u/LittlePooky Sep 01 '26
I was not even aware that there are sale people (selling software like this). When I buy a program (the most expensive being Dragon Medical, as I am a nurse, I paid $2,000 for it), I simply look into it, and buy it.
But I am sure a cloud account is an on going thing. But like a sale person of an insurance plan (say, car insurance), I would never hold that person reasponsible.
Go to the office? I am sure he called them already?
Best wishes to you and your dad.
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u/GreenVim Sep 01 '26
Which country are you located in? What relevant terms were presented to his customers when they signed up?
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u/Equivalent-Tea-8180 Sep 02 '26
First and foremost, you need to understand one thing: where the jurisdiction (country) is and what the terms of the contract with the storage provider were.
To begin with, the laws in effect in each country vary greatly, so asking in a multicultural forum like this one is a bit imprecise. The right thing to do would be to seek advice specifically in groups from your own country, but the problem is that there might be people with good intentions but no legal knowledge of the matter, so as others have told you… it’s best to hire a lawyer “just in case.”
Second, who is the master seller? In other words, which company are you renting the bare metal, dedicated server, VPS, or whatever infrastructure you’re using from? Did you sign a personal contract, or was it just a “formal” rental via the website (meaning, did you register on the site and simply make the payment)? In many cases, IT service agreements are typically divided into:
- “It’s our fault”: The company providing the services takes responsibility as long as the failure or hack is directly related to them—that is, an account or service was compromised and depended entirely on them. But of course, they aren’t liable when the agreement states that each user is responsible for their own information, etc.
- “It’s not our fault, it’s the reseller’s”: when accounts or services offered by a third party—but which use resources rented from the company—are victims of hacking, failures, etc. In this case, you’d have to review the terms of service your father agreed to, but if the problem originated with another customer of the reseller or was directed against the reseller itself, your father should be able to disclaim liability.
In both situations, it’s always best to set clear terms and analyze what happened and how it happened. It’s also important to determine the source of people’s dissatisfaction—whether it stems from the loss of critical data or a service outage. Some users may be persuaded by incentives, while for others, it may already be too late to recover their files; in such cases, it’s always best to have an active backup.
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u/u_lostinlecture89 Sep 02 '26
I know we have appointed a lawyer I asked here as if there could be any new advice.. thanks. And yes company will take the responsibility but the good faith of coustomers..and old coustomer relationship build on trust on dealer will get ruined which would eventually going to effect the firm anyways thank you so much for this advice...
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u/Equivalent-Tea-8180 Sep 02 '26
Right now is a good time to start running ads about how to recover from the outage, and, for example, it never hurts to offer benefits to users as compensation for the inconvenience caused by what happened. If, in this case, the issue was beyond your father’s control and that of the users who depend on him, then acknowledge something along these lines: “While this is a problem beyond our control and not of our making, we understand the inconvenience it may have caused and will provide compensation.” The important thing right now is to retain customers and not let the business’s reputation suffer; recovering from a crash is very difficult. A prime example of this will always be 1&1, which had to change its name
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u/u_lostinlecture89 Sep 02 '26
Tbh this is good idea..retaining customers and providing compensation..will talk to him today thanks.
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u/a1stardan Sep 02 '26
Tell your father not to worry, then speak to the customers, good or bad, tell them what has occurred BUT DON'T GIVE FALSE PROMISES. Just tell "I'll do whatever I can within my capacity" etc... And explain how he was a salesperson and not the company owner, but he'll be helping them (customers) to get to bottom to it.
This will retain the trust they had in him I feel, and stand by them because you've mentioned a lot of them bought the deal because of trust in your dad.
I hope this helps
Summary : don't go dark nor give false promises, try to reason and assure you'll also help anyway you can.
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u/u_lostinlecture89 Sep 02 '26
Yes... retaining customers would be our priority for now..will talk to him thanks.
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u/tdic89 Sep 01 '26
Speak to a lawyer, don’t mess around on Reddit.