Who:VFEmail

# of Accounts Breached: All customers/subscribers

What was affected: All the data was destroyed, on both the main and the backup systems.

When it happened: February 11, 2019

How it happened: The U.S. servers of privacy-focused e-mail provider VFEmail were hacked into on February 11 and all the data was destroyed, on both the main and the backup systems. According to VFEmail’s owner, the hackers did not leave a ransom note and, given the extent of the destruction, the service will most likely go offline to never return.

Outcome: Owner not rebuilding the email provider. No threats this time. DDoS often over the years. There were some hack attempts in November, but those were blocked and just targeted the web servers. I’m leaning towards not rebuilding. There was a lot of custom code that would need to be re-written, and it was never profitable. VFEmail didn’t make money on selling personal data or targeted ads. Even Adsense revenue had all but dried up.”