The great Boards.ie hack in 2010

Gloomtastic!

Just received an email in my spam folder that has my old Boards username in the subject line.

Could this be a consequence of the hack in 2010?

LoLth

it could be but...

did you use your boards.ie username anywhere else? a lot of users use a familiar nick as their username and may have used the same nick elsewhere (many boardsies use their Quake player name for example because boards grew from the quake community originally)

Do you have any emails that contain your boards.ie username?

Do you have any emails registered that had that username in the address?

Have you ever signed up to any online service or product with that username either as the account name or given instead of your real name in the customer/user info section?

Do you have any documents on your system with that username (that would be bad if that were the source!) or is it part of your account profile on the machine you are using (if so it could be included as part of a cookie or some other website datamining measure performed through your browser)

so, yes, it is entirely possible that, four years later, someone is using data taken from that incident - either the original perpetrator or someone else if the data was shared online but more likely, unless the username was uniquely used for boards.ie , it is from a more innocent source that you may have overlooked as part of your security measures.

Of course, it could be none of the above and just be an old dataset crawled from boards' publicly accessible pages from a time when you used that username or from a thread that you posted to under that name pre-2010 that is still visible now. [edit: wouldn't explain how the email address was matched though unless you included it in a post and it got scraped]

LoLth

A pre-emptive nipping

I hope it goes without saying that there will be no discussion of the event in 2010 nor will there be any speculation as to the identity / motive / actions / subsequent actions etc of any party that may or may not have been involved. I'm asking nicely

If you, like the OP have received email recently (last 3 or 4 months?) with your old boards.ie username, please feel free to either post here or drop me a PM and I'll pass it along to those what prod the hamsters.

Bud well and truly nipped

Dav

Hi there,

This was just reported to us in the last half hour so you beat us to the punch in getting this thread posted. It looks like someone's picked up the stolen usertable (this is the part of our database that contains usernames and email addresses) and is using it as the basis of a Spam campaign. We're obviously very sorry that this happened in the first place, but unfortunately it now appears that the stolen data has found it's way into the wild.

As per the emails and notifications we sent around after the Hack in 2010, if you are using the same email address/password combination on any other website, you should have changed it.

If you get an email with the following, PLEASE REPORT IT AS SPAM AND DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THE SERVICE.

[EDIT at 18:30]
It looks like this is AskAboutMoney.com related - I've spoken to Brendan who runs AAM and he informed me that they are currently investigating a hacking incident from the 20th of June.

Spam Email wrote:

Hey!

I need your help to beta-test this amazing new mobile system that's already resulted in profits of $558,087 in cold hard cash...

If you've never made a penny online before, and you want to be able to create a profit pulling machine in just 7 clicks of your mouse

>> START CLICKING NOW! <<

=> <<Click>>

- You don't need an existing website

- You don't need any technical experience

- You don't need to be a sales person

- You don't need any money to get started

- You don't need to learn about SEO, Twitter, link-building, CPA, PPV or any of that

- You don't need to spend hours of your time each day to make any money

In fact, beginners will get preference

> View Clicking Details <

Application Requirements:

- Provide feedback in terms of the features and functionality of the product

- Let us know how fat your bank account has become

> INCREASE YOUR BANK BALANCE NOW <

=> Click Here

NOTE: only 50 beta-testers are required and the closing date is fast approaching!

Best of luck,

Jane

P.S. 7 clicks from now... $558,087 in cold hard cash

>> START CLICKING! <<

Unsubscibe

Pacing Mule

Hi Dav.

Got this email myself but it referred to an incorrect user name. It said hi Xxxxxxx and off it went from there.

Edited out what may well be an old Aam username.

Speak Now

I got an e-mail today using the user name I've only used on ask about money! Nothing boards related.

zagmund

I got this email @ 12.42, but it was addressed to an account I used on AAM, not boards.ie

I reckon the common thread (if boards.ie & AAM are getting them) might be targetting .ie email addresses. Or maybe it's just AAM and not boards.ie afterall.

z

LynnGrace

Jerry Seinfeld wrote: »

I got an e-mail today using the user name I've only used on ask about money! Nothing boards related.

Same here, got one relating to AAM.

dbran

Yep.

My AOM nick and not boards nick.

dbran

Crunchienut

LynnGrace wrote: »

Same here, got one relating to AAM.

Again my email used my AAM username

Edit:

This is on the AAM site:

Today, users of Askaboutmoney received spam emails to the email address with which they registered at askaboutmoney. These emails were personalised to their Askaboutmoney user names.
“Dear “askaobutmoney username”, BETA-TESTERS NEEDED (Beginners Preferred) - registration ends on July 07, 2014”

We believe that, when Askaboutmoney, was hacked on 20th June, the hackers downloaded the user names and email addresses.Askaboutmoney runs on vBulletin, and as such, the passwords are “hashed”, so we don’t believe that they have accessed passwords.

What you should do now…
As a precautionary measure, change your password on askaboutmoney when we put it back up
If you use the same password on any other site, change that password as well
If you wish to change your user name, when Askaboutmoney is put back up, send a Private Message to Brendan Burgess with your choice of new name and your email address.

Again, we apologise for the breach of security.

Brendan Burgess

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Agent Smith

Randomly enough, I got a sms yesterday from "NewMessage" saying "You received a photo message, and to click some link sn.im etc to see me"

Now, I remember back in the day when boards had a tweet, thing, and You could enter your mobile.

Is it possiable they have gotten access to mobile numbers?

testicle

Yes, I can confirm that it's not my boards.ie username that's used, it is instead my askaboutmoney username that's used. Both are unique.

The_Conductor

I'm not on AAM......
Got this just before lunch:

---

Forwarded message

---

<SNIP personal information>

If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view.

Hey!



I need your help to beta-test this amazing

new mobile system that's already resulted

in profits of $558,087 in cold hard cash...



If you've never made a penny online before,

and you want to be able to create a profit

pulling machine in just 7 clicks of your mouse



>> START CLICKING NOW! <<

=> <<Click>>



- You don't need an existing website

- You don't need any technical experience

- You don't need to be a sales person

- You don't need any money to get started

- You don't need to learn about SEO, Twitter,

link-building, CPA, PPV or any of that

- You don't need to spend hours of your time

each day to make any money



In fact, beginners will get preference

> View Clicking Details <



Application Requirements:

- Provide feedback in terms of the

features and functionality of the

product

- Let us know how fat your bank account

has become

> INCREASE YOUR BANK BALANCE NOW <

=> Click Here



NOTE: only 50 beta-testers are required

and the closing date is fast approaching!



Best of luck,

Jane



P.S. 7 clicks from now... $558,087 in cold hard cash

>> START CLICKING! <<

Unsubscibe

Soarer

Surely everyone knows when an unsolicited email appears offering to make "cold hard cash", it should be treated as spam?

Spear

So it's AAM who just got freshly hacked? That's a relief, I was beginning to feel left out, since I didn't get any spam.

Blowfish

Spear wrote: »

So it's AAM who just got freshly hacked? That's a relief, I was beginning to feel left out, since I didn't get any spam.

Seems it, not the first time either.

LoLth

Admin note

Please don't post content that contains your (or someone else's) email address. its just going to get crawled and your end up with even more spam!

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Insect Overlord

I had something in my spam folder a few weeks back, and my original Boards nickname was in the subject. I just ignored it, like pretty much everything else marked as Spam!

Wibbs

Agent Smith wrote: »

Randomly enough, I got a sms yesterday from "NewMessage" saying "You received a photo message, and to click some link sn.im etc to see me"

Now, I remember back in the day when boards had a tweet, thing, and You could enter your mobile.

Is it possiable they have gotten access to mobile numbers?

FWIW AS I got the exact same text yesterday and I never gave Boards my phone number.

muffler

Same as a few others I got the email message also using my AAM user name which is different from my Boards nick.

Neyite

I got it too. Not sure if it was an AAM nick or my former boards one.

Gloomtastic!

OP here again. Looks like it wasn't Boards but AAM. The spam I got was the same one as they have posted on their homepage.

Forgotten I'd ever been there.......:rolleyes:

ED E

My addy normally gets VERY little spam. Last three weeks or so Ive been bombarded. Thought it was ebay but maybe its this.

tenifan

I got one from a company whose system made them $558,087 in cold hard cash despite only entering beta testing.

Kind regards,

Tenifan
Software Quality Analyst
CTB Systems PLC

P.S. 7 clicks from now... $558,087 in cold hard cash

>> START CLICKING! <<

Unsubscibe

Mint Sauce

Would there be anything in the subject line. Dont usually open emails from people/companies I dont know or expect.

BrendanBurgess

I am trying to get to the bottom of this.

Has anyone received this specific spam today to a user name which they do not use on askaboutmoney?



Brendan Burgess
Administrator
Askaboutmoney

daingeanrob

did anyone get the money? i would've done this only i don't want to be greedy, theres an african prince trying to get his money out of africa emailing me...

Digital Society

BrendanBurgess wrote: »

I am trying to get to the bottom of this.

Has anyone received this specific spam today to a user name which they do not use on askaboutmoney?



Brendan Burgess
Administrator
Askaboutmoney

Signed up to your site for the first time the other day and i DIDNT get the spam if thats any good to you. More proof it happened before that.

Dav

BrendanBurgess wrote: »

I am trying to get to the bottom of this.

Has anyone received this specific spam today to a user name which they do not use on askaboutmoney?



Brendan Burgess
Administrator
Askaboutmoney

Just for the record, I can confirm that this *is* Brendan and he and I have been talking about this issue to try and get it solved as soon as possible.