Mumsnet data breach: what has happened and what to know if you’re affected
.jpeg)
The parenting site, Mumsnet has suffered a data protection breach after a software upgrade allowed users to see other people’s information.
They reported themselves to the UK data protection agency and have started sending out emails to its approximately one million members.
The site is aimed at parents and families, but also has members who are suffering abuse or have a range of personal problems, including domestic violence, loneliness and other potentially sensitive matters.
The bug allowed users to see other people’s information if the users logged on at the same time, Mumsnet said.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said it had received the report from Mumsnet and would be looking into the incident.
What could and could not be seen?
Those affected would have been able to see information including email addresses, account details, posting history and personal messages.
What should I do?
Mumsnet says there’s no need for users to do anything except look out for an email from them.
“We are currently working to positively identify any users whose accounts were wrongfully accessed by running software to interrogate the server logs in depth. We will inform anyone affected directly with more information as soon as we identify them,” the company said.
They are sending emails to all users – approximately one million members – and hope to have completed that by the end of Friday 8 February.
Mumsnet said: “We’re really sorry that our mistake has caused anxiety and we do understand why some MNers will be really worried by this.
“There is no evidence that anyone whose account was switched has done anything malicious, but of course we cannot be sure until we have tracked down and investigate every incidence and every log and contacted the affected posters – we are working very hard to close this down as quickly as possible.”
Even if you have opted out of receiving Mumsnet emails this one about data security will override your opt out.
How is Mumsnet fixing the problem?
By Saturday, Mumsnet had confirmed 46 users were affected by the breach.
“We are currently working to positively identify any users whose accounts were wrongfully accessed by running software to interrogate the server logs in depth. We will inform anyone affected directly with more information as soon as we identify them.”
The company says a software upgrade on 5 February contained the bug, and on Thursday they reversed the changes so that it is no longer in the system.
They have also forced every member to log out of the site to ensure the Thursday update kicks in.
source inews
Industry: Cyber Security News
Latest Jobs
-
- Outside IR 35 contract- Threat & vulnerability analyst - SC CLEARED UK REMOTE
- N/A
- £550
-
6 month rolling contract Outside IR35- immediate start. Threat and Vulnerability Analyst. Tenable.sc experience needed. The ability to deploy agent, configure environments, run active and passive scans, produce reports and prioritise remediation activities based on output Current and ACTIVE clearance is required
-
- Chief Information Security Officer- CISO. London
- London
- N/A
-
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is needed to join a senior leadership team that is driving change across a London based FTSE business. You will have responsibility and accountability to define and execute an information & Cyber Security strategy. To be successful you should have the following experience; Experience defining, presenting and executing against your information AND cyber security strategy. Experience delivering / managing functions across information security GRC / Audit and technical Cyber Security capabilities. Senior stakeholder management to the executive committee. Embedding Info / cyber security within a Cloud focused environment. Further develop, expand and mature the information / cyber security function | team. Be able to regularly commute to London Financial services experience is desirable. If this sounds like an opportunity you are interested in then please use the below form to schedule a call. This is an exclusive project to DCL Search. All conversations are kept in confidence.
-
- IAM Business Analyst- ForgeRock
- European Union
- £500 per day
-
IAM Business Analyst with ForgeRock experience is need for a 12 months contract The client is in the middle of a large scale ForgeRock deployment and the BA will sit between the technical teams and the business helping to ensure the project is a success You will need to be a strong business communicator and have experience of mapping business needs against ForgeRock features This will be a remote project dealing with teams in different geographies, you must have strong English communications skills and be happy working remotely and able to be proactive to ensure your side of the project is a success
-
- Java Developer
- United Kingdom
- upto £55,000 plus good benefits
-
Home based opportunity for an experinced Java Developer to become involved in a number of large scale national IAM projects Duties include · Development and maintenance of source code for our customers IAM deployments · Have a good understanding of testing frameworks and methodologies and are able to test solutions within you own work and others · Ability to create clean code according to good coding standards · Create easy to follow documentation You don' need to have experience within the Identity Access Management space but it would be beneficial we are looking for people with · Java experienced ideally Java 11 · preferably experience in some of the following: Maven, Gradle, PHP, Lua scripting, C#, Spring Boot/Spring, OGNL, or Groovy · experience of working with one or more of: creating/consuming REST APIs LDAP SQL encryption Identity Protocols (SAML, OAuth, OIDC, SCIM etc) · good knowledge of development methodologies with regards to the end user experience For more details please send your CV and we will come back to you