The website of Mensa – the club for people who have scored highly in an IQ test but who feel their social lives would be improved by hanging out with other people who chose to join a club after scoring highly in an IQ test – is said to have suffered a cyber attack.
In an email to members, British Mensa said that “extensive investigations” by its hosting company and web developers have found “no evidence” that any data had been lost.
The discovery of an attack was swiftly followed by two of British Mensa’s board members quitting, citing concerns that the organisation is not properly protecting members’ data.
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Eugene Hopkinson, who until recently was the British Mensa board’s technology officer, has reportedly been trying to convince Mensa’s leadership team since 2018 that the organisation needs to stop storing passwords in plain text.
Hopkinson told the Financial Times that he believed the sensitive information being insecurely stored by Mensa includes:
the IQ scores of members and failed applicants
instant messaging conversations on Mensa’s website
payment card details from Mensa’s online shop
passwords
email addresses
home addresses
Since the resignations, British Mensa has shared limited details of other security incidents:
This week, a series of incidents have occurred which appear to be designed to discredit Mensa’s systems. One of these incidents did involve a breach of the private data of two members. The source of where that data was harvested is part ..
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