YouPorn Users’ Emails And Passwords Laid Bare Online
Hackers publish personal details online – exposing security flaw that has existed for five years
More than one million red-faced Internet users could have had their personal details exposed after they were left on a public-facing server by popular adult website YouPorn.
Although the site is free, users register, and their email addresses have been exposed along with the date of birth they gave. Apparently this data has been stored in a public fashion since 2007, with the security flaw undetected until now.
Caught with their pants down
Hackers have been examining the information and some have posted email addresses, passwords and dates of birth online, meaning that although YouPorn has moved to rectify the flaw, its users remain exposed.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, was keen to point out the security risks involved with the hack.
“More than the embarrassment factor, there’s also a security issue here. We know that many internet users adopt the same password for multiple sites,” he warned.”So, if your YouPorn password is now known, hackers might try that same password against your email address, your PayPal account, your Amazon account, and all many of other online resources. If you are still using the same password on multiple sites, please change your dirty habit now.”
He also notes that although it’s bad enough that passwords have been leaked, it could be potentially more damaging and embarrassing for users to see their email addresses connected with YouPorn.
“You can imagine how employers and marital partners may be less than impressed to find you are registered for a website like YouPorn,” he commented. “Their discovery of your porn penchant is only a search and a click away. “
Last month, Zappos, an Amazon-owned online shoe and clothing retailer, suffered a massive data breach that affected more than 24 million of its customers, while last year over 77 million users were compromised by an attack on Sony’s Playsation Network amid fears that hackers are using increasingly sophisticated tools to crack passwords.
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