Did something actually happen on Sunday night?

Yes I see that now and that makes a lot of sense there is no other explanation.

MNHQ have involved the police regarding the images, they have disabled uploading photos, they are looking at ways to prevent it in future, and no doubt their lawyers/police are prohibiting them from commenting further. The site was not hacked.

The posts are difficult to find in that thread but there were at least five MNHQ posts last night.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/5266690-its-time-to-rethink-the-night-watch-volunteer-system?page=34&reply=141901886

It's on here. Click on the blue part at the top of the page where it says MNHQ have commented.

The people who posted the spam will likely be watching the boards for the reaction and enjoying the distress they have caused. There are good reasons for not giving them that gratification

Everything we need to know up till now is on the other thread.

Lots of fanning the flames going on atm. We don't need multiple threads titillating the person(s) responsible who are watching this site like a hawk.

You can find the MNHQ post on a thread in site stuff. Agree there should be a separate pinned response on the incident though.

You managed to find your way to Site Stuff to post this thread but can't manage to find the large thread in Site Stuff about this issue, and click on the link to take you to MN's response?

I am concerned. I also posted a thread in Gransnet that was trending and now I can't access the site! I see the PP has now had their post deleted.

I will probably be blocked from MN now and this post deleted too. Why is MN doing this to us?! I haven't done anything wrong I just narrowly missed seeing the CSAI and want to discuss it with other MNetters.

Posting an image (or more) is a little easier than hacking for your personal details HTH

Secondly, if you looked around the site to see what's on site stuff, you may have noticed that it's already being looked at. After all, where did you hear about it?

Generally, these kind of events aren't widely publicised to reduce the likelihood of copycats.

Well, yeah. Mine was one of many emails addresses and passwords released by a hacker a few years ago.
I now use an email address for this website that I never ever access, so I miss replies to reported threads, etc.
Do you have other personal information on your profile other than email and password?

I think what people are saying is that the idea of your personal data being at risk is unlikely
There is no evidence atm that they were doing anything outside of something a normal account could do. It's right that's reviewed but it's unlikely to be a security threat

I've no idea why my other post was hidden but the best thing is they sort it with police rather than allow mass speculation

It might also generate a review of who can post pictures, how many and how the site is managed overnight

People don’t need to keep bringing it up all the time. It wasn’t a spam bot it was a disgusting individual who decided to post pictures. It’s been dealt with and that’s the end. Frankly if you don’t like the way it’s been handled then leave . You’re acting as it’s the end of the world , it’s not and it was easily remedied.

It's not the breach in the way you think it is though. Think of it as plastering lots of posters on the outside of a bank vs breaching the bank. Scary yes but unlikely to be a risk to your data inside

It's fairly easy to create multiple accounts, and post anything (hence there is spam about all sorts of things at times with multiple crypto coin, scam hair dryer threads popping up), even for someone with zero tech know how.

Last week I could have set up 60 accounts and started spamming with pictures of my dog. It would of taken a while for it to be noticed that multiple threads and comment replies under different usernames were duplicate. I wouldn't have access to anyone's personal data and would have the same account access as everyone else.

This then for professional spammers they do this automatically, simply by having a computer auto generate account info, and posts (no different to when a computer auto fills a form for you or helps randomise your password)

This happens with all websites with co ordinated spam attacks. The tricky thing is that I don't believe that the night watch here have many powers to look at blocking site wide functions, or identifying ip addresses etc. Lots of sites also only allow posters to create a certain amount of activity in a short period, and prevent new accounts from posting photos.

On a site I used to admin, I could turn on controls to limit how often someone can reply, add new keywords to prevent posts with those words from auto publishing etc. I'm not sure night watch have that

Obviously the imagery is completely horrendous and it's right that some sort of statement Is made, police involved etc and longer term review of site safety but the idea the personal data on the site has been breached is likely incorrect

Weirdly this feels like you've missed some gossip and are feeling left out.

If you are actually angry and disgusted with mumsnet handling's of the situation may I suggest you delete the app and log out?

Instead of digging for media stories and reports from other posters.

There are numerous spam posts today. Even without posting pictures, with new registrations obviously being open, still very easy to post whatever someon intends to post. Just change format from a pic. So I would strongly discount clicking any links including legit looking ones