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

where are they promising that?

deleting posts / privacy
I don't want to worry folks, and understand that there are some for whom there is a genuine worry about information on mumsnet... but some things to consider:

• Mumsnet are very unlikely to delete posts, to do so would leave them open to emotional blackmail from people trolling / partial deleting / etc. it would make a mess of the forums.

• Even if they do, those who post here should realise that even if mumsnet removes a post it won't necessarily remove it from the internet, Google will have it cached very likely, or it may be on the internet archive:

www.mumsnet.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/*/www.mumsnet.com which holds some snapshots of MN for many years back (good nostalgia trip!)

• others may save / copy threads

• your post may be in the personal computer browser cache of everyone who reads it for a while after reading...

as such some things to consider:

• chat may say it vanishes in 30 days, it might do so from viewing here, but elsewhere? in backups / archives / cache - probably not

• if you post it you have given away access, you can never recover that

• however much you disguise yourself you might be traceable - not just from hacks, but from others putting 2+2 together and actually making 4!

simple rule if you are not happy for it to appear on the front page of the daily mail with your name and sad face photo against it - don't put it online...

The irony of the internet is in how it appears to offer anonymity, while being far far less anonymous that talking confidentially to a doctor / priest / professional / friend / etc. etc.

not helpful for those already worried about what is online, but perhaps helpful for those posting in the future - think before posting!

Oh Jeffrey has been doing something- he's changed the screen of the dadsec homepage. Sticking to what he knows won't get him jailed for a long time doing some self promotion

It's on his Twitter and his webpage I think (the promises of more to come) I can still see the swatting photo though on his Twitter account?

Hope everyone was ok over night, no hot police men turned up here despite me wearing my naice pjs!

For everyone asking to dereg and for their data to be deleted I'm sure that MNHQ will get back to you as soon as they can, but remember that deleting the data from MN won't do that much now. It'll still be recoverable in cached pages etc, as is everything else on the Internet.

It is very much a case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

In terms of what you can do now, secure your MN account and any other accounts which either share your username or password or have weak passwords. Set up two factor authentication if you can.

nishky difficult to know - but could be innocent...
location could be a red herring - lots of uk traffic goes through the US, so could be lots of things and linux powers many things from servers to apple macs :)

if you want to PM me details I will happily have a look for you

Cross posts, akk. Great minds and all that!

I'm a bit cross this morning (not least because I've changed every single password on every single website I use and I can't remember any of them).

My details were on the list. Up until now, I've not been particularly bothered by this fact. It's annoying but it actually doesn't affect me in any tangible way. The more I think about it though, the more cross I am. How dare somebody think they have the right to treat people like this? I know from behind the safety of their computer, they feel like warriors. I know they feel clever and go to bed at night warmed by their sense of victory. What victory though? They've hacked a site which was set up to offer support to people. I've used MN for eleven years and seen what it can do. I've seen the difference it has made to individual and collective lives. It supports the vulnerable, the lonely. Not just mothers either. Not just women. Not even just adults. This spurious claim that a group of people have done this because they're angry that MN is 'anti-men' is ridiculous. Of course you can find evidence of posters being less than complimentary about men (sometimes deservedly) but I can find plenty of posters who don't like Christmas or dogs or pubic hair or Channel 5 or the name Balonz. You don't see Father Christmas or Deputy Dawg or Balonz arming themselves with a keyboard and whipping away the support net of countless people, all in the name of some invented crusade. To publish people's personal details, to terrify them in their own homes, it's despicable behaviour.

One man's crusade against the Internet giants is actually just somebody violating real life people's right to a private life. I feel terribly sorry for the staff of Mumsnet too. They're just people running a website fgs.

Yeah, like I said, cross.

I need more tea.

I don't really need to read all this do I?

Very well said.

Yy permets
If I had the skills to do what they have done I'd target a whole list of objectionable scourges on society before I would pick mumsnet.

if the internet boards are to be believed - MNHQ knew about this phishing in the middle of July.

akkakk that's reassuring thanks, there is no sign of any issues so I am going to cease worrying about it-have beefed up the security on the account.

It is annoying, isn't it?

I come here for a chat & a laugh as I'm sure lots do.

Not to deride men/fathers or tell other women to LTB.

Ar there (m)any MNers who do that??

I can find plenty of posters who don't like Christmas

it is all starting to make sense now

If you had a legitimate problem with the way in which you had personally been treated by the authorities, if decisions had been taken which discriminated against you because you had a penis, then you would have a valid reason for challenging those decisions. If you have those computer skills ably demonstrated here, you could absolutely highlight injustice and campaign for change. Or you could pick up an imagined slight, attack a website set up to support people and terrify young families in the middle of the night. Of course, if you truly feel that you want to look your child in the eye and say "son, for the right to parent you equally, I wasted police time, terrified a young family, stole people's personal information, broke the law and bragged about it" then I don't have the comparable wits to engage with you.

DH has quietly placed tea next to me and crept away. I suspect I'm typing furiously again.

Nailed it, PermetsTu.

Ironically when men have been badly treated, or experienced injustice, or uncertainty, and come on here, MN is so helpful and supportive to them. Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

diddl, a tiny, tiny minority of millions of posters, yes, maybe, at a stretch. However, that's people isn't it?

Some of that tiny, tiny minority will have terrible experiences in their lives which means that they're automatically distrustful of men. That's human fallibility. What Mumsnet is good at is allowing those views to be presented but countered. Same as any other topic discussed on here. People have their own life experiences and opinions and it all makes for valid discussion. Rarely is it even an agenda, just the cumulative effect of personal experience. Why the whole website, innocent individuals and a team of people doing their job need to be punished for what is, essentially, fallible human opinion, I have no idea.

Father Christmas is still maintaining a dignified silence in the face of terrible slurs across his festival.

I'm still cross apparently. I don't like it.

it's six o'clock somewhere in the world. But bloody well said.

I love you Permets. Leave your DH, marry me

DH has quietly placed tea next to me and crept away. I suspect I'm typing furiously again.

:o had a mental image of him reversing slowly out of the room without turning his back to you or making eye contact.

My DH has this certain look on his face when I start typing furiously. I call it his "oh lordy, she's off on one again..." face.

I don't know why but MNHQ reset my password last night "as a precaution". I've asked for further explanation but haven't received a reply yet. I'd already reset my password after the new request so I can only assume they have evidence that I was/was going to be hacked.
Anyway, at about midnight last night I heard a car door shut quietly outside and freaked out that it was a swat team. Irrational, I know but I know they are reading this thread and I was posting a lot yesterday. So, as much as I love MN I'm going to de-reg now. I can't cope with this stress on top of everything else. Will keep reading but without being logged in.
So long and thanks for all the fish...

Father Christmas is still maintaining a dignified silence in the face of terrible slurs across his festival.

That's becuase he died in 1967 and was replaced by a look a like. He doesn't want to draw too much attention.

PermetsTu quite right. They published my details too. I'm not some manhating Internet giant, I'm really nobody. Just trying to get by and raise my kids as best I can.

I've turned to mumsnet for support and advice in the past, but largely I like it because it gives me company and makes me laugh. I don't have a secret agenda, I just like chatting. I have a wonderful DH who I love and respect and is a great father. I don't hate men.

I have been thinking a lot over the last couple of days about a particular poster who was on The List. She was using mn to support her through some mental health problems and I haven't seen her around since The List was published. I hope she's ok and getting the support she needs irl. If you're reading this, I won't post your name, but I haven't changed mine so hopefully you'll recognise me from your threads . I hope you are continuing to do well.

One thing I would say.

Never post anything on here you would not be happy answering for in RL in the right set of circumstances. Be measured, be truthful, and always consider how you would justify it should it come to pass that it becomes identifiable.

I have posted personal things that might be a bit embarrassing if revealed (actually this happened at work recently, but I just retorted that MN was like Fight Club and officially didn't exist at work, so we weren't going to refer to it or else) but frankly my world didn't and wouldn't end, because it was nothing I wouldn't say face to face if necessary.

The exception to this might be someone being abused and/or fleeing to a refuge, and needing help, in which case you need to reveal but then throw more sand over your tracks etc. MNHQ are very good at helping in such cases.

Ultimately however the vast majority of posts here are normal coffee shop chatter and we need to remember that (and we should be mindful of coffee shop chatter as well, and be truthful and measured about that, too).