Web Site / Membership Security

Hi Everyone,

At 03:03:02 EST an attempt was made from a Charlottesville, VA computer at 76.5.79.149 [va-76-5-79-149.dhcp.embarqhsd.net] to try to export our member database. Hacking is a federal offense and Embarq will confirm the user by IP address. The attempt was fruitless, but this incident just reaffirms the need to be cautious with our membership info.

Our membership database is safe, we have tons of precautions and firewalls and any attempts are logged in case charges need to be filed. CHERUBS does not give away or sell our membership information to anyone. It it used solely to contact all of you for matching, newsletters, etc. We protect our database diligently and we respect your privacy immensely, as all non-profits should. You all have enough going from dealing with CDH, we truly believe in protecting our members and providing a safe place for you all to talk and support each other.

We have also had over a dozen attempts made to try to join our membership under aliases and false information - just in the past few months since our site went live. Some of you might remember Elise Martin, Ann Poore, and Cathy Allen from our old listserv - all aliases of the same person who tried to hack into our database, all aliases that got onto the listserv and tried to start problems. We now have several safety measures, including a new volunteer position, New Member Coordinator (thank you, Amy!), just to keep this drama out of CHERUBS.

So we are posting this to let you all know that we are safe, but we need your help to keep the drama out. Do not give out your information to people that you don't know. Do not give out any other member's contact information. If someone contacts you and tries to slander CHERUBS, recruit you to other web sites or otherwise cause trouble or drama - please report them immediately to any of the moderators and please forward any e-mails or PMs to dawn_torrence@cherubs-cdh.org.

It's very much a shame that this post is even needed, but let's just keep an eye out and let's also not let one person interfere with all the good we do here. Now, let's keep being *supportive* and positive, encouraging and uplifting, constructive and working together to bring more CDH Awareness, research, and most of all - what CHERUBS was started for - support.