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Maine Takes Public Data‑Breach Portal Offline After Fake VRChat and Discord Notices

The attorney general said it will review verification procedures to prevent misuse of the publicly posted breach registry.

Overview

  • The Office of the Maine Attorney General disabled the public-facing breach portal on Monday and removed two hoax reports that impersonated VRChat and Discord.
  • One fake filing used counterfeit VRChat letterhead, named a non-existent employee and claimed about 2.4 million users were affected; VRChat said the notice was not genuine.
  • A separate notice claimed Discord had a 10 million-user breach but contained clear red flags and no evidence supports that scale; Discord’s prior disclosed incident involved about 70,000 government ID copies.
  • Security gaps allowed anyone to submit and publish a notice without firm verification, and the portal had listed nearly 6,000 incidents since mid-2020; organizations can still file reports through the AG’s internal online reporting service.
  • The state will keep the public database offline while it considers stronger verification and authentication rules, and the motive and origin of the fraudulent submissions remain under investigation.