Armed police officers were sent to the home of the founder of Mumsnet after a hacker made a hoax call as part of a wider attack on the parenting forum and its 7.7 million users.
Justine Roberts said the website, which has more than 14m visits a month, was forced offline during a cyber-attack claimed by an internet troll called @DadSecurity on Twitter who posted taunts such as “RIP Mumsnet” on the social network. She urged all Mumsnet users to change their passwords immediately amid fears the hacker or group of hackers have taken control of at least 11 accounts.
Metropolitan police officers were sent to Roberts’ home after the hacker called 999 claiming a gunman had been seen nearby, in what is known as a “swatting attack”. Another Mumsnet user was left “pretty shaken up” after police arrived at her house in the middle of the night after she interacted with @DadSecurity online, Roberts said. The Twitter account has now been suspended.
In an email to users, Roberts said: “To add to the ‘fun’, it seems @DadSecurity also resorted to swatting attacks. Swatting is a criminal practice in which someone makes an emergency call to the police claiming that a crime is taking place at the house of the intended victim, in order to get the police to send out an swat team to the address. An armed response team turned up at my house last week in the middle of the night, after reports of an armed man prowling around.
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