Lincoln County

Member data may be compromised

Dear Lincoln County Members,

 

  This is your usually asleep at the switch County Freecycle Administator writing at the behest of the larger organization.  They ask that I paste the text below into a notice and share with all of you.  Therefore, please see below.  To me there seems no grave risk as all Freecycle keeps is the Freecycle password associated with your account.  That means you could be impersonated here and heaven knows what sort of nefarious individual might want to do that!  Really, I'd like to offer to give aways a large plush stuffered Easter Rabbit from ~ 1974, but I'd like to impersonate someone else to do it.  Then I'll drive to the address and film the disappointed seekers who fnd no rabbit....  Don't let anything like this happen, please change your password.

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On August 30th The Freecycle Network / Freecycle.org became aware of a data breach on Freecycle.org. As local Town group volunteer moderators we have been asked to reach out to to you as as a local group member to ask that you change your Freecycle.org password as soon as possible. We very much apologize for the inconvenience. 

Further information on the breach and on how to change your password may be found here:

https://freecycle.helpscoutdocs.com/article/319-data-breach-august-2023

   [and there is a "?" on that page if you have further questions]

The breach of data includes usernames, User IDs, email addresses and hashed passwords. Because of the exposure of personal passwords we are taking every measure to quickly inform members about the need to change their passwords. If you have used the same password elsewhere, you are well advised to change the password there as well. No other personal information was compromised and the breach has been closed and is being reported to the respective privacy authorities. 

While most email providers do a good job at filtering out spam, you may notice that you receive more spam than usual. As always, please remain vigilant of phishing emails, avoid clicking on links in emails, and don't download attachments unless you are expecting them. 

Here are some useful links to help keep you safe:

https://haveibeenpwned.com/ Find out what past data breaches have involved your personal information. 

https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams#report (U.S.) Learn how to recognize phishing emails.

https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing#:~:text=Forward%20suspicious%20emails%20to%20report,(%20NCSC%20)%20will%20investigate%20it. Learn how to recognize and report phishing scams in the UK

Again, we thank you for your generous gifting locally and apologize for the hassle.

Sincerely yours,

Your local Freecycle Moderator

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Paul Devlin