Security incident affecting Vegan Bootcamp accounts created before September 2025

Published 30 October 2026 by Vegan Hacktivists

Vegan Hacktivists ran Vegan Bootcamp until September 2025. It's now run by We The Free. This notice is for anyone who signed up before September 2025. We emailed everyone affected on 29 October 2026, but some emails didn't arrive because the address no longer works or was mistyped at sign-up. If you signed up before September 2025, please read this whether you got the email or not.

What happened

In October 2026, the team that now runs Vegan Bootcamp found a malicious file on the website's server. It was most likely uploaded in April 2025, while we still ran the site, through a security flaw in a third-party file manager the site used. Anyone with the file's password could have accessed the site's database. Records from that time no longer exist, so we can't tell whether anyone did, and we're treating it as possible that they did.

What it involved

If you signed up before September 2025, this could include:

• your name and email address
• your password, stored in scrambled (hashed) form rather than as plain text
• if you signed in with Google, your Google account ID (not your Google password)
• your account activity and course progress
• any optional answers you gave at sign-up, such as your country, gender, age group, diet and reasons for joining

If you used the Vegan Bootcamp forum, your forum login details may also have been exposed.

What we've done

The file has been removed and the current site's passwords and keys have been reset. Old accounts weren't carried over when the site moved to its new team. We've reported this to the UK Information Commissioner's Office and to data protection authorities across Europe, and we've emailed everyone affected.

What this could mean for you

We haven't seen any sign that anyone's details have been misused. But someone with them could send you convincing phishing emails that use your name and mention Vegan Bootcamp. And if your password was weak or common, it could be worked out from its scrambled form and tried on other sites where you used it.

What you can do

• If you used your Vegan Bootcamp password anywhere else, change it there.
• Be careful with emails that mention Vegan Bootcamp and ask you to log in, pay or download something. We will never ask for your password.

Questions

We're sorry this happened. If you have any questions, write to us at hello@veganhacktivists.org. If you signed up after September 2025, We The Free, who now run Vegan Bootcamp, will contact you separately.