Instead, the disclosure resulted in the API being shut down within the hour. A much better result IMO.
He should have gone to the ICO straight away as well as report directly to moonpig then if it wasn't fixed within x amount of time, take next escalation step (which may or may not be public disclosure). Given that it's midnight in the UK now, we're lucky that they acted so quickly (assuming the offline API isn't just scheduled downtime).
Going public had no guarantee that would have taken the API offline. I guess taking risks like that is easy when it's now your own data that's being compromised....
I say this thinking of the argument the rest of the world makes when the DMCA threat is used against a non-US entity.
Not sure what the DMCA reference is about. I understand that people use DMCS on companies that are not US based therefore it has no power. Still not sure why you mentioned that though.
They aren't related whatsoever, however the thought process of being put into the same position as the security research in this article is what made the connection for me. Assuming that the author wasn't from the UK (he probably is, but bare with me), as someone from the States I would have assumed that having an email exchange with the company was more than enough especially if there a reply on their end.
From my perspective, again knowing nothing about UK law (as much as people in the UK, China, or Fiji may know about US Law), I wouldn't know where to turn after that. Maybe a teaser post, without disclosing everything? If it weren't for the fact that the author stated that he had several two-way conversations with a representative of the company, I would have more sympathy for moonpig.
Speaking of which: How effective is the ICO?
The ICO is reasonably good - I don't get any (personal) junk telephone calls or junk mail because of our laws about how companies handle my data. (This seems like a trivial example now I've typed it! But it did mark a clear difference between before and after ICO).
The website and reporting is much better than it used to be. ("Please download, print, and complete this MS Word document, then post it to this address")
Then, at least, the legal system would have also been given a chance to resolve this without full disclosure and potential doxxing.