Oilpro.com back online after founder arrested

Oilpro.com, a social media website for oil and gas professionals and enthusiasts, has come back online, after it had gone offline following the arrest of its founder, David Kent.

A message on the website last week had said that the Oilpro.com was down due to “an outage.”

To remind, David Kent was arrested last week and charged for hacking and stealing data from Rigzone, a website he had founded in 2000 and sold to DHI in 2010 for around $50 million. More on that here: https://bit.ly/1Vf0NtR

In a statement issued on Monday, Oilpro.com said:

“Former Oilpro president and CEO David Kent is stepping down from his role at the company and taking a leave of absence from Oilpro.com.

What does this mean for Oilpro.com? More importantly what does it mean for you as a member of Oilpro?

Oilpro’s company mission to deliver a content first professional network to the oil & gas industry is unchanged.

Together with Oilpro’s regular contributors, Oilpro staff will work hard to continue to make the website a great place to read, share and connect.

The Oilpro development team is currently working on several new features that will help improve the member experience. Stay tuned, they will be released over the next few months.

The team at Oilpro thanks all our members for being a part of Oilpro.“

Following the sale of Rigzone in 2010, David Kent established Oilpro, dubbed the Linkedin of the oil and gas industry, in 2013.

According to allegations, Kent had accessed Rigzone database without authorization, and stole resume information from over 700,000 customer accounts, eventually using the info to grow the Oilpro audience. Furthermore, it has been reported that Kent wanted to sell Oilpro.com to DHI, the same company he had sold Rigzone to.

The U.S. Justice Department says that, Kent, 40, of Spring, Texas, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit computer hacking and wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison, and one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. Any sentencing, however, will be determined by the judge, and Kent is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.