In recent months, the BRCA website experienced a serious security issue. One of our email addresses was compromised and used to send out millions of spam emails. Thankfully, no further criminal activity was linked to this incident
Unfortunately, as a result, our website was flagged as unsafe by most service providers and temporarily blocked. Because the situation was beyond the expertise of our volunteer team, we engaged a professional provider and a security specialist. Their role has been both to restore the website to full use and to guide us on best practices for managing the site securely in the future.
What We Are Doing
Two key measures are now in progress:
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Password Resets
We are asking every member to reset their BRCA account password. This step ensures that no compromised details remain active and helps protect your personal account security. -
Improved Email Security
We are changing the provider of our @brca.org email system. This will add further layers of protection, and we are also considering introducing two-factor authentication (2FA) to guard against future hacking attempts.
What Members Need to Do
If you have not yet changed your password, please do so immediately. This is the primary reason some members cannot currently access services such as event entry, and it will also affect membership renewals later in the year. You can do this following this link: https://www.brca.org/login?view=reset
Please also be aware that ongoing email blocking remains an issue. Some providers—particularly Hotmail—routinely block emails sent from our site. Although we work to have these blocks lifted, they often return. Because of this, and due to the way Hotmail manages its filtering systems, we strongly advise members not to use Hotmail addresses for BRCA communications.
If you have already reset your password but still use a Hotmail address, please consider switching to another email provider. We understand this may be inconvenient, but it is currently the only reliable way to ensure you receive essential BRCA communications.
How You Can Help
If you have suggestions or advice that could assist us in strengthening our security measures, we would be very grateful to hear from you. Please email your ideas to: