Potential security vulnerability at the MacKiev Company, which owns Family Tree Maker software

[At home in NZ]

I have an email alerting me to this blog.
Personally I cannot see the benefit in changing passwords.
While in FTM you can log into Ancestry but you cannot do it vice versa. I never log out of either.
Do I need to be worried??

 

[jorghes]

Interesting, I didn't get that email at all, and I use FTM and Ancestry.

Sounds like a better safe than sorry suggestion.

 

[At home in NZ]

I didn't get that email at all,

If you haven't signed up for the blog you won't get any emails about it.

 

[peter]

There are more details here. There seems to be no evidence that the vulnerability was exploited by bad actors, but it would be safest to follow the advice.

If you've used the same password at other sites you need to update them as well.

Note: this is a good time to remind you that you are advised not to use your LostCousins password at any other site (apart from this forum, should you choose to do so).

 

[At home in NZ]

If you've used the same password at other sites you need to update them as well.

I only ever use a password for one site.
Thanks for the further details.
Is it worth putting an alert in your next newsletter? Because, not everybody can see the Forum and not everybody is signed up to Ancestry blog.

 

[peter]

I only ever use a password for one site.
Thanks for the further details.
Is it worth putting an alert in your next newsletter? Because, not everybody can see the Forum and not everybody is signed up to Ancestry blog.

Everyone can see the forum - but only forum members can post or view attachments. However I'll probably mention it anyway as it's not the only security alert this week (GEDmatch is another one).

 

[canadianbeth]

I have a huge list of passwords in a little book and pretty much every site I visit has a different one, except for possibly a few that do not matter one way or another. I recently changed the Lost Cousins one, as well as Ancestry.

 

[peter]

I have a huge list of passwords in a little book and pretty much every site I visit has a different one, except for possibly a few that do not matter one way or another. I recently changed the Lost Cousins one, as well as Ancestry.

A lot of people use password managers - LastPass is particularly popular (and the basic version is free).

 

[canadianbeth]

Could this be why my FTM program will not open?

 

[At home in NZ]

Everyone can see the forum

My mistake, sorry. I doubt if all LC members look at the Forum, could be wrong though.

 

[peter]

I doubt if all LC members look at the Forum

They certainly won't if they think they can get all the information they need from the newsletter.