Hackers Send Armed Cops To Mumsnet Chief's Home

Armed police descended on the house of Mumsnet's co-founder last week as part of an attack on the site by a group called @DadSecurity.

In a message to the parenting site's users, Justine Roberts said: "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."

She said one of the site's users had also been "swatted" by @DadSecurity after a report of gunshots at her property.

"Needless to say, she and her young family were pretty shaken up," said Ms Roberts.

Swatting is where a hoax call is made to police in an effort to draw armed officers to a property - stars such as Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber have been targeted in the US.

Ms Roberts said "police are investigating both instances" but London's Metropolitan Police was not able to comment.

The massively-popular site was also subject to a DDos (denial of service) attack, Ms Roberts wrote, which forced the site offline from Tuesday night until 10am on Wednesday.

@DadSecurity claimed responsibility in a series of tweets, which included: "Now is the start of something wonderful", "RIP Mumsnet", and "Nothing will be normal anymore".

Ms Roberts warned people to reset their passwords after concerns the group had managed to access user information - possibly by setting up a fake Mumsnet log-in page - known as a 'phishing' attack.

She said there was evidence 11 accounts had been hacked but that there was "no way of knowing" the exact number.

The email to users said: "By using your password and login, he would have been able to see the data on your profile - so that includes your username or email plus your password, your postcode if you’ve supplied it, your username history and your Mumsnet inbox."

"We are looking into what we can do to strengthen our defences against phishing, but in the meantime we need to ask you to be vigilant, and to check the URL of the login page for the foreseeable future," Ms Roberts wrote.

The site also advised users it was more secure to log-in via a social network because a password does not need to be entered.

The Twitter account used by @DadSecurity has now been suspended.