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Just found this "VS" email in my spam folder

1K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  Penquin 
#1 · (Edited)
It does look genuine, but it'd be no good if it didn't, what I don't understand is why it's gone to spam.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Notice of Data Breach

You may have heard reports recently about a security issue involving VerticalScope. We would like to make sure you have the facts about what happened, what information was involved, and the steps we are taking to help protect you. VerticalScope owns and operates a number of community websites. You are receiving this email because you are a registered user of the following community website(s) involved in the data breach:
samsunggalaxysforums.com
forums.motorhomefacts.com
www.vwt4forum.co.uk

What Happened?

On June 13, 2016, we became aware that February 2016 data stolen from VerticalScope was being made available online.

What Information Was Involved?

Community member usernames, email addresses, hashed passwords, community userIDS, community website, and the IP address the username originally registered with.

What We Are Doing

We have invalidated passwords of all VerticalScope user accounts. We have posted a site security notification on each site updating users on the potential risk to certain accounts, the password reset and steps we are implementing to improve security. We have implemented stronger password rules (passwords now require a minimum of 10+ characters and a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols) along with automated account password expiries to encourage more frequent password changes. We will remind our users to use good password practices (not using the same password for multiple online accounts and using unique strong passwords). We are in the process of implementing additional safeguards to detect, alert and mitigate any future brute force attempts, and have notified our third party vendors that interact with our various forum API's of the February breach to allow their own security teams to investigate. We are continuing our investigation and will be collecting information to provide to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

VerticalScope is taking steps to strengthen account security. We were already using encrypted passwords and salted hashes to store passwords, and our new password controls are intended to further strengthen user security. We are taking steps to investigate and test new encryption and security technologies to further protect our users.

What You Can Do

To keep your account as safe as possible, we recommend that you regularly change your VerticalScope community password, and that you use a unique password for each of your online accounts. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your chances of being compromised. Even though the passwords stolen in February were hashed, we recommend that if you were using (or are currently using) your VerticalScope community password across multiple online accounts, that you change your password for such other online accounts. We encourage you to regularly review your accounts and report any suspicious or unrecognized activity immediately.

For More Information

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Community Management team by email at cmsupport@verticalscope.com or on the website that you frequent. A support thread has been created on each website, and our support teams are on there to help you through the process and answer any questions you may have. A Notice of Data Breach is also available on community websites involved in the data breach.

This email was sent by VerticalScope Inc., 111 Peter Street, Suite 700, Toronto, ON, M5V2H1. If you have any questions regarding the communications you receive from us, please contact us.



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#3 ·
I also got it today. The data breach was played down a little when it was first brought up on these forums but I'm beginning to think it might have been a bit more serious than we were led to believe hence the email - complying with data breach regs I expect
 
#4 ·
I got the same email and it mentioned two forums I used to be a member of a long time ago. I think the email is genuine, but as Kaytutt says I think they have to do this email to comply with regs. But I have noticed a lot some spam and junk email over the past two months from dating site. No I don't want to date a cowboy of farmer.

Last night in 4 spam emails I had won over $10,000,000 and had 79 views of my profile and hot blondes wanting to contact me. If only........
 
#5 ·
"bulk" e-mails like that commonly end up in spam folders unless the sender is a regular sender of mail to you. As it's fairly infrequent that anybody from VS would be sending e-mails, quite alot of members would have had them and they have probably been dumped after 7 days like mine probably has been! :surprise:
 
#6 ·
I had one supposedly from a forum that I have not joined.....

on an e-mail address that I have ONLY given to what I believed to be senior VS staff when they first took over.......

which makes me think that MY data that they hold, supposedly in confidence and trust, has been breached......

that causes me concern - I can appreciate bulk e-mails being sent out, but only to addresses that they should be being sent to, and listing the correct forum, not another one that I am NOT a member of......

I did post this on the long thread VS started about the data breach, but have had no response so far.....

If they can and do, misuse addresses given them in confidence, what hope is there that they can apply security properly?

Dave
 
#9 ·
Posted in your other mention of this.

You might have used that email on a legacy site or another forum.

I'm surprised they have not even bothered to respond to this thread :roll:
See above.

Had that on the 14th July, came as a straight email, no problems.

They have to send them under the Canadian Data Reg's if there is a data breach.

Peter
Correct.

Jeff M
 
#7 ·
I'm surprised they have not even bothered to respond to this thread :roll:
 
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