A Lesson in Transparency

Buffer was hacked. How did I find out? Not a corporate blog post the next day. Not a news article reporting on it. Instead, Joel sent me an email an hour after it started.

Hi there,

I wanted to get in touch to apologize for the awful experience we’ve caused many of you on your weekend. Buffer was hacked around 1 hour ago, and many of you may have experienced spam posts sent from you via Buffer. I can only understand how angry and disappointed you must be right now.

Not everyone who has signed up for Buffer has been affected, but you may want to check on your accounts. We’re working hard to fix this problem right now and we’re expecting to have everything back to normal shortly.

We’re posting continual updates on the Buffer Facebook page and the Buffer Twitter page to keep you in the loop on everything.

The best steps for you to take right now and important information for you:

Remove any postings from your Facebook page or Twitter page that look like spam Keep an eye on Buffer’s Twitter page and Facebook page Your Buffer passwords are not affected No billing or payment information was affected or exposed All Facebook posts sent via Buffer have been temporarily hidden and will reappear once we’ve resolved this situation I am incredibly sorry this has happened and affected you and your company. We’re working around the clock right now to get this resolved and we’ll continue to post updates on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have any questions at all, please respond to this email. Understandably, a lot of people have emailed us, so we might take a short while to get back to everyone, but we will respond to every single email.

– Joel and the Buffer team

Yes, I know Joel didn’t personally send it to me. It’s a mass email to every Buffer user. But that’s okay since he’s dealing with bigger issues when he sent it.

 We’re getting a fantastic lesson in the power of transparency surrounding horrible situations like this.

The entire team was called in to help fix the problem and reply to customers. I can only imagine how many Tweets, comments, emails, etc. the Buffer support team is answering right now. But they’ve been on top of every single one and promised to answer every single one no matter how long it takes.

They’ve also got a central place to give out updates on the hack. Go check out the comments there. Tons of love and praise for how Buffer is handling everything. Lots of Buffer fans who will remain loyal Buffer fans.

That’s the power of openness. 

Keep an eye on that Buffer update post as well as their Twitter stream. Take notes. You and I are going to learn a lot on how to handle this situation if it ever happens to us.