Mumsnet hacks: Site targeted in fresh spate of cyber and ‘swat’ attacks

Mumsnet has been targeted in a new series of cyber and “swatting attacks” after the site was shut down twice within hours.

Justine Roberts, who created the UK’s biggest online network for parents 15 years ago, revealed the latest attack was "double the size".

Cyber attackers shut down the website, which generates more than 70 million page views and 14 million visits per month, yesterday just hours after an earlier attack that also sent it offline.

In a post online Ms Roberts said: “We were hit by another denial of service attack which meant we were offline until this morning, as soon as we got back up we were attacked again.

“This attack was double the size of the previous one and was distributed across many servers but we have no reason to believe that any security breaches occurred, the intention was to take the site offline.

“We are contracting external protection providers to help deal with future issues. The police are continuing their investigation.”

It comes after a series of coinciding cyber and so-called “swatting attacks” which fresh details emerged of today. Swatting is the practice of calling in fake threats that would require police to take an armed response. The term comes from the US where the practice is more common and derives its name from the term SWAT, Special Weapons and Tactics, that deal with armed incidents.

In the original incident, when armed police were called to Ms Robert’s £1.5 million Islington home in the early hours of August 11, a hoax caller claimed a man had murdered a woman and that people were being held hostage at the home she shares with BBC Newsnight editor Ian Katz. This was shortly after a cyber-attack on the site sent it offline.

Evening Standard has now learned that on August 19, new cyber and swat attacks coincided after hackers obtained Mumsnet-related data from an “external system” and a hoax call was made to police saying a bomb had been planted at a premises in Highgate, believed to be its headquarters.

This was followed by another hoax call on August 20, targeting a Mumsnet user, in which armed officers were called to their home in Croydon over “the welfare of residents”.