Hackergate part four - PLEASE READ!

[RebeccaMumsnet]

Previous thread here and original thread here

We will post here throughout the day with updates and info, please do post any questions and we will get to them as soon as possible.

If you need to get in touch off of the boards, please email [email protected], we have a team of people working through the inbox now and will get back to you ASAP but please do bear with us, it's very busy.

There is also a specific thread about passwords here.

Thanks all
MNHQ

Walford, unless their account has been hacked, then the poster is innocuous - on a few political threads, anti Ukip, nothing not to like

Evenin' all.

Sometimes my MN url has the so called normal way of laying out the thread I'm on,

e.g. /talk/shite_stuff/123456-wot-is-going-on?trending=1

and sometimes

/talk/shite/123456-wot-is-going-on?#prettyphoto.

Pray tell, why?

Goes off thread a bit...Jeffrey has a new twitter account and web page which has a phone number posted on it- Cambridge area code. Imassume that's not his number but I wonder whose it is (too scared to call it) is it Mumsnet HQ?

theredlion I've just had this too.

wellwhokne it's something to do with having opened an image, I think?

Nothing to worry about re pretty photo or trending.

You will get an email saying your watched thread is updated, once I believe, and watch is automatic on everything you post on unless you opt out in customise.

The phone number has been up for hours now and isn't MNHQ. We don't know who it is. The police will probably know by now though.

because there are two address for the same site.

just like you can use AIBU or Amibeingunreasonable

Ok thanks Stephanie, which is a fantastic username.

Obvs don't click on any emails if you don't feel safe to. You can easily check watched threads on here without clicking links.

Btw - anyone been swatted yet?

Oh thank you it was one of those you don't think about, iykwim?!

also walford don't click the email link; just go into inbox via the link on this page, you will see the first few words of the PM and can judge from that maybe

I googled the number and couldn't find anything but then I would probably be a shit detective

He spoke to the mirror.

I thought I was being swatted but it was just dp coming home disappointed

We don't know that was him how according to that article there's a whole bunch of them

Re: timing of emails from MNHQ. A v good explanation was posted yesterday by akkakk on another thread. I will copy here and hope he doesn't mind

"exciting note about email servers ;)
any email server that sends out too many emails in one go is virtually automatically listed as spam and blacklisted... therefore anyone doing genuine large mailings will batch send them - often each batch is as small as 20-100 emails - it may only take a short time for a batch to go, but with 7,000,000 registered members (is that right) it will always take MN a long time...

then you have other delays - for example, one anti-spam measure is that some mail servers automatically reject an email and wait for it to be resent - most spammers don't bother resending, so a resent email is considered to be more likely to be genuine... of course the MN mail server is in the middle of sending out millions of emails, so resending might end up delayed!

other email servers can spot patterns such as a flurry of emails with none previously, and delay new emails coming in in case they are spam...

some email servers simply send all emails to Brazil for 24 hours for a nice holiday smile

and lots of other techniques...

so never expect emails to be instant and in this case they can be very slow - I have just received tonight one from MN talking about issues from yesterday!"

The pissing cat is ill and had thrown up all over the place, she's ruining my swat prep. Jeffery could you hold off until I've vanished the carpet, I want it to look it's best.

Obviously I am joking and as someone who has in the past had various raids, thanks to ex mister grinch I know how awful it is.

To the person up thread who asked about the new app, it's not working at the moment. MNHQ said yesterday that they're aware but it wasn't their priority right now.

I'm going down the phonebox to call the number

In the early days of Internet Forums, some users had passwords which could be easily guessed or deduced by knowing the names of their pets, or their football teams, or something?

Occaisionally someone would try to get into another users account by simply guessing a password.

That is why you should choose a complicated password.

As my NN suggests I have had to re-register to post this. My username was one of those on the list. Below is a C&P of the email that I have sent to MNHQ as I cannot access my old account at all. That's not the only problem I am having either.

I logged on to Mumsnet last night and having read Justine's message about the DDOS issue, immediately changed my password. I had some problems getting it to work so requested a re-set and made sure that I updated it to a different password. I also changed the email address that I was using to one that I had set up specifically for social media and which contains no personal details.

I have tried to log into MN this evening and my new password will not work. I have tried my old one and it doesn't work either. So I requested another re-set to be sent to my new email account - only now I can't access that either. I absolutely KNOW that I am using the right password for it because I wrote it down and kept it somewhere safe.

So now I cannot access MN at all. I cannot access the email account that is associated with my MN profile. This seems like a hell of a coincidence when my MN username, IP address and password have just been published.

I have asked to be de-registered from MN and that MNHQ also erase all of my posting history back to when I originally joined in 2010. I feel that I have no option but to ask for MNHQ to do this because it seems that my data is not safe.

I bet TiredButFineODJOF it's just some random premium rate number.

The rozzers were here two nights ago and they were quite nice. They would be no match for ds3 though.

The thing is about that sort of attack is that once people are aware of the threat and that it's likely to be a hoax rather than a real situation, they're not going to be nearly so freaked out as when it's unexpected.

I think it must have been appalling for poor old bear the other night, and Justine's 'staff', but it won't have the same impact if he does it again - plus the police are forewarned too, so may just double check every call of that nature anyway before they go in.

Well it's not 0845 or anything, it's a "regular" phone number, if it's not mumsnet towers I guess it's either a crazy answerphone message, or a staffer's home number

Yes but what will you say when someone picks up the phone? I don't see the point. They will hardly tell you who they are if they're up to no good. And if it's some innocent person you're adding to the botheration they're having as well.

Don't do it.