The Ince Group Plc v Person(s) unknown

Hearing dates: 1 April 2022

Approved Judgment

THE HONOURABLE Mr Justice Saini

This is my open judgment in respect of an urgent application which was heard, in part, in private. The intended Claimant, The Ince Group Plc, is an international commercial law and business services firm. It makes an application without notice for an interim non-disclosure order.

At the start of the hearing in open court, I heard submissions from Adam Speker QC on behalf of the Claimant as to whether there should be a hearing in private of part of the application. For the reasons I gave following those submissions, I directed that part of the hearing would be in private and I explained in open court that I was satisfied that the Claimant had established appropriate grounds for a derogation from the principle of open justice.

This is a case where in several respects a public hearing would defeat the interests which the Claimant seeks to protect. This case concerns an ongoing incident of apparent blackmail and the submissions and evidence of the Claimant encompass more than the contents of the information stolen. They include what is known to date and the steps taken to deal with the incident. I consider there is a need not to hamper the efforts to trace the Defendant and/or encourage others to search for the information. I also concluded that what can legitimately come out now can be controlled better through a private hearing and provision of a public judgment restricted to the facts necessary to explain the reason for the Order. That would satisfy open justice requirements whilst having proper regard to the rights of the Claimant and others affected. The Claimant has also not sought anonymity.

As I have stated, the application is made without notice. For reasons which will become apparent, I am satisfied that it was appropriate not to give the Defendant notice. The application is made against a Person or Persons Unknown and, on the material before me, it is clear that the Defendant has demonstrated that it has information it knows it should not have and knows or suspects its actions are of a criminal nature. It is clear on the current evidence that the Defendant is motivated by money and has threatened to damage the Claimant by a form of blackmail, and there is a real risk that notice will trigger the Defendant to disseminate the confidential information which is the subject of the claim. Although the issue is always fact-sensitive, in ransomware injunction applications it is generally appropriate to proceed, in the first instance, without notifying the Defendant. I turn then to the substance of the application before me.

Following a cyber-attack on or around 13 March 2022, the Defendant, an unknown party, has obtained certain confidential data of the Claimant firm. It is not appropriate for me in a public judgment to go into the nature of that data, but as I will explain in due course, I am satisfied that the information has the necessary quality of confidence for the purposes of the law of confidentiality.

The Defendant is threatening to publish the stolen data on the dark web if the Claimant does not pay a substantial ransom demanded of it. By way of preliminary observation, it seems to me on the material before me that the Defendant has no basis for arguing that there is any just cause or excuse for publishing any information, so it is hard to see how Article 10 of the ECHR would be engaged. But I will return to that issue when considering s.12 of the Human Rights Act 1998.

The application is supported by a witness statement of Mr Adrian John Biles, Chief Executive Officer of the Claimant firm. Omitting confidential details, I can summarise the relevant background facts as follows. On 13 March 2022, through the Claimant firm's internal security programme, it came to the knowledge of the firm that there may have been an intrusion into its computer systems. In due course, a communication emanating from the Defendant was received by the firm demanding a ransom in default of which there was threatened further disclosure of the information. This is a clear blackmail case.

As I have indicated, I am satisfied on the basis of the information provided to me in Mr Biles' witness statement that the information stolen by the Defendant has the necessary quality of confidence, and it is not appropriate for me to enter into any further discussion of the nature of that information. I turn then to the nature of the relief sought before me. The appropriate test in an application such as this is the well-known American Cyanamid v Ethicon [1975] AC 396 test....