Genealogy Chat

I know this isn't the correct place to put this, but thought it best to let everyone know - just in case it's a scam.

I've just received an email from a web site called roots ireland, telling me there's a breach of security and want me to change my password. They are not asking for account details etc. But as I am not a member of any Irish sites I know this is a scam. But for those of you who are members I just thought it best to warn you.


Take care, Lou

I've had this too. I though it was v. suspicious as I belong to several Irish sites but have never heard of this one. The bit about changing passwords on other sites looked very strange too.

Angela

Thanks for the warning.

Chris

see Heather's thread on General.

Hi guys, sadly its genuine. There is an article on BBC Ireland about it - 2 WEEKS AGO! Im so angry because I had my credit card used last week and the security guy couldnt work out how they managed to change my personal details on there.

I couldnt even remember using the Irish site even after l I got the email about the hacking. I didnt even know I had a password on there. I went there and did a change password thing and then when I entered, there was all my personal details!!! I vaguely remembered then doing a free trial on it to see if any of OHs people came up must be years ago.


I sent an email to the Irish family forum yesterday asking them to remove all my personal details from their site. They sent me a mail today saying they dont hold credit card details so there is no need to worry. ERM, someone can use your personal information to do whatever they want, like apply for mortgages, loans, change your passwords on any of your sites, basically identity theft and they dont seem to realise this or be worried at all. IF they had sent those mails out 2 weeks ago when it actually happened I bet Id not had my credit card skimmed.

Whoever stole those thousands of names, addresses and personal details are sitting there now working out what to do with them

BBC NEWS:


Internet forum database 'hacked'
Boards.ie screengrab
Boards.ie has gone offline as a result of the attack

Irish internet forum Boards.ie has reported an attack on its user database which could affect thousands of users.

In a statement it confirmed that "an unauthorised source" from outside Ireland accessed its database server.

It urged members who use the same username/email and password on other sites to change passwords.

"Part of the database which includes our members' usernames, email addresses and obfuscated passwords was accessed," Boards.ie said on its homepage.

The site started life as a forum for the computer game Quake in 1998 and has more than 500 forums on a range of topics.

According to the most recent ABC internet traffic statistics in November, Boards.ie had more than 20m page views, averaging more than 1.1m page views a day.

Tom Murphy, co-founder of Boards.ie said, in a statement, that like all large sites they were "regularly the target for disruption and take continual actions to proactively protect data".

He said that the attack "was completely unprecedented despite our rigorous security measures and while we have no idea if this data will be used for any malicious reasons, we felt it vital to tell you this immediately".

Boards.ie says it is changing all user passwords and has notified Irish police, the Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes and an independent security consultant.

Mr Hawkes said the attack should be taken as a warning to internet users to create different passwords for different websites.

He said his office would be investigating the security breach but he praised the company for pulling the website immediately and alerting its members.

Im sure lots of people must have received the email and ignored it as a scam. I do hope they see this and check it out.