Mensa Pays Damages To Former Director Accused Of Data Leak

Mensa – the society for people with high IQs – has paid damages to a former director it accused of being responsible for an embarrassing data leak.

The Mensa website was hacked in January this year, resulting in the theft of personal information from the society’s 18,000 members.

Eugene Hopkinson, a former director and technology officer at British Mensa, stood down from the society in the wake of the attack, claiming it had failed to properly secure members’ passwords. Lots of members’ personal information was reported to have been published online, including transcripts of online chats and the IQ scores of current and failed applicants.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Mensa tried to claim that no personal information had been accessed, before acknowledging a breach and then suggesting that “some personal data of our members was deliberately put into the public domain”.

In subsequent communications to its members, Mensa then tried to pin the blame for the breach on Hopkinson, suggesting he was personally involved in the attacks. Hopkinson subsequently sued Mensa for libel.

“Entirely false” claims

A statement read out in court by Hopkinson’s solicitors last week stated that: “The Claimant contends that the gist of the publications was that the Claimant was responsible for the data leak and cyberattack, had illegally transferred membership data on to his own personal server and had maliciously and deliberately attempted to harm Mensa and its membership in breach of the criminal law.

“The Claimant contends that the allegations made against the Claimant were entirely false. They have caused him reputational damage within and beyond the extensive Mensa membership, the matter having generated some press interest. They have also caused the Claimant considerable embarrassment and distress.”

The case has now been settled, with Mensa agreeing to pay substantial damages. “British Mensa Limited and its directors have agreed to pay defamation damages and costs to former director Eugene Hopkinson after publishing a series of statements that alleged he was responsible for a data leak and cyberattack and had deliberately attempted to harm Mensa and its membership,” reads a statement on Hopkinson’s solicitors website.

A Mensa spokesperson said: “Following an unsuccessful cyberattack on the British Mensa website in January this year and a series of incidents involving member data, British Mensa’s IT suppliers undertook an investigation.

“Their findings included a download of the member database to a server owned by former Technology Officer Eugene Hopkinson.

“On the basis of the evidence currently available to us, British Mensa accepts that there is insufficient evidence to reach the criminal standard of proof that Mr Hopkinson was responsible for either the cyberattack or the subsequent data disclosure.

“Legal action between Mr Hopkinson and British Mensa Ltd has now been resolved and we will be making no further comment. For commercial reasons, British Mensa’s insurers recommended that the claim was settled out of court.”