ATTENTION ALL: Changes to the login process are coming.

[BeccaMumsnet]

Hi all,

We wanted to let you know in advance about a change we're making to the login page on Mumsnet, which will take effect from Monday.

As you'll all know unless you've been living under a rock for the last two months we've been looking very carefully at our site security in the wake of the hacking attacks in August. We've done a lot of work behind the scenes, but one of public changes we've decided to make is to remove the option of logging in using your username.

On a forum on which usernames are visible to the public, the wisdom now is that it's imprudent to allow people to log in with their usernames, on the grounds that a determined attacker could take their name and employ a piece of software to crack their password (this is known as a brute force attack). It's far more secure to require people to log in using their email addresses, since a hacker would have no way of knowing that.

From Monday on, therefore, we're going to remove the option of logging in using your nickname and password, and ask you to sign in using your email and password instead.

Alternatively, if you prefer, you can still log in via Facebook or Google+.

If any of this doesn't make sense, or you've any further questions, please do ask here or email us on [email protected]

Thanks all
MNHQ

Yes indeed Dawn, I rarely log in from elsewhere.

Bloody hell, that took longer than I expected - but perhaps I was being a bit of a techno-numpty

cozie the system assigns you the user name that you're currently using.

Thanks, Fru.

Just changed to a dedicated email address. Got the yellow confirmation banner while old email still showed in the box. Clicked the link in the confirmation email, however, and then when I came back to my account settings the new email address was in the box. So all good here - Windows 7 / Opera

Thanks, not a problem for me as I'm permanently logged in.

Thanks, not a problem for me as I'm permanently logged in

Me too. I dare not log out. I set up a Gmail account just for MN after the hacking and now have no recollection of what the Gmail address is or what my password is.

"Me too. I dare not log out. I set up a Gmail account just for MN after the hacking and now have no recollection of what the Gmail address is or what my password is."

For you and others in the same situation of not remembering emails have you thought about using KeePass? Basically you install it and it keeps an encrypted database of all your passwords. You only ever need to remember one password which is the one you've chosen to access KeePass itself. Then when it comes to logging into say Mumsnet you just find the Mumsnet entry on your KeePass database, "copy password" and paste it into the login box on the MN site. I was in the same boat of forgetting emails and passwords, now every password is crazy complex stuff like 4^^KL%C!!!43. If one password is ever compromised in a site hack like MN was, there's no mad rush to change all my passwords, I just need to change one.

I'm not affiliated with them or anything, it's completely free and the source code is freely available to anyone. Just thought I would mention it as a potential aid.

I use an address book and had,to my surprise, written the details down. !

If people don't have access any more to the email address they signed up with how does MNHQ get in touch with them?

A little trick for those who use Gmail/GoogleMail is to use the + character after your Gmail username.

If you were:

[email protected]

Your could be: [email protected]

This means you could have different login email addresses for sites but with the emails all coming to the same Gmail account.

Thanks. I didn't know that.

Hi all - glad to hear some of you are being successful with email changes.

For those of you who are having trouble remembering which email address you use for your Mumsnet account, you can find this under 'My Account'.

Don't use GMail a lot but that's useful to know thanks nannynick

nannynick Wouldn't that mean that if your MN e mail address was stolen they would effectively have your proper e mail? Or is there more to it?

trying to change my email address and can't remember current password, changed it 5 mins ago but to save the new email address it is not recognising the new password. how do I enter my old one if I can't remember what it was

IfIToldYouIdHavetoKillYou Yes, it does not resolve that issue. It just helps to filter mail arriving to the gmail account, so may not be that much use.

eatyourveg Do you have access to the old email address? If so, try resetting the Mumsnet password again Password Reset

I log on to all the other sites I use with my username, I'm now worried that these are all insecure!

Sorted! Thanks nannynick