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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Sex Matters has been hit by a cyber attack now - is it Bash Back

9 replies

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 05/08/2026 16:50

Sex Matters, along with over 1,500 other charities, uses a UK-based customer relationship management (CRM) service provider called Beacon. We use it to store the data on our supporters, staff, trustees and advisory group and some other contacts.
Beacon is a well-respected company, voted by Charity Digital as the best CRM provider in 2026.

Beacon CRM recently notified us that it experienced unauthorised access to its systems. During the incident, a copy of Beacon’s database backup was taken. Beacon stores data in an encrypted state, but it has said it is possible that the unauthorised third party responsible for this incident was able to decrypt it.

OP posts:
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UtopiaPlanitia · 05/08/2026 18:16

I’ve had 2 online businesses and now SM informing me of data breaches in the last few weeks.

I’m getting really feckin cheesed off with organisations and their outsourced IT service providers not taking stronger precautions to protect user data. Everyone knows that hackers in Russia, N Korea, China are actively attacking anywhere they can so why don’t businesses (especially IT companies whose area of expertise this is) do a better job of encrypting and protecting user data.

It’s all very well getting regretful emails, after the fact, to tell me what parts of my personal data have been stolen but it’s of no bloody help to me.

And organisations reporting themselves to the ICO after the breach is not much bloody use to me either.

sohard · 05/08/2026 17:23

I highly doubt that bash back are intelligent enough to have done this.

SadiraOfTyr · 05/08/2026 17:20

AimsAndObjectives · 05/08/2026 17:11

Maybe consider deleting the thread? It's kind of advertising the breach. Anyone affected will be getting emails anyway.

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It's in the tech news already - it is considered extremely bad form to keep breaches secret when they affect third parties.

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/08/05/uk-charities-count-the-cost-of-beacon-crm-cyberattack/5283305

It will just be the usual Russian hackers hoping for a payout.

AimsAndObjectives · 05/08/2026 17:11

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 05/08/2026 17:10

Yes, Sex Matters, along with over 1,500 other charities, I know, I was just thinking that Bash Back threaten and maybe they did.

Maybe consider deleting the thread? It's kind of advertising the breach. Anyone affected will be getting emails anyway.

ZetaOrionis · 05/08/2026 17:10

It doesn't have anything to do with specific organisations afaik, tons of them use Beacon. I've had emails from other, completely unrelated, organisations about the Beacon hack. It's a mass data harvest of names, emails and addresses - used to try and phish online etc.

Original poster
TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 05/08/2026 17:10

Yes, Sex Matters, along with over 1,500 other charities, I know, I was just thinking that Bash Back threaten and maybe they did.

OP posts:
AimsAndObjectives · 05/08/2026 17:07

It's lots of charities potentially affected:

https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/08/05/beacon-crm-cyber-incident-charities/

Charities affected are contacting their supporters and other contacts directly and preparing reports for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), as required when personal data may have been breached. Among the first to notify their contacts were DataKind UK, Breast Cancer UK and the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR). Other charity clients include English National Ballet, the Molly Rose Foundation,

Beacon CRM cyber incident: charities told to act as if supporter data has been taken

Explore the details of the Beacon CRM cyber incident and what it means for UK charities managing sensitive information.

https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/08/05/beacon-crm-cyber-incident-charities/

tesseractor · 05/08/2026 17:06

I’ve had a message from a different charity, not involved in anything similar at all, about it.

AimsAndObjectives · 05/08/2026 17:01

SM also say:
There is no evidence that the cyber security breach was targeted at Sex Matters or our area of charitable work.