Pexels/romirain/InstagramOne of life’s greatest mysteries is Pornhub’s share button.
Who in their right mind, while enjoying some online hardcore pornography, stops to think: ‘You know who’d love this? My Facebook friends.’
Of course, that’s the good thing about porn websites: it removes the nervous taboo of going out and purchasing adult viewing materials from shops.
Relativity MediaThere’s a massive catalogue of material to appeal to anyone’s varying kinks and festishes, all able to be enjoyed anonymously in privacy. Unless, of late, you’re a Luscious.net user.
The details of all of Luscious.net’s 1.195 million user were leaked after an exposed database gave access to countless would-be blackmailers or extortionists, includes usernames, email addresses, activity logs, and location data, Mashable reports.
Luscious.net isn’t necessarily an encyclopedic porn service either. It’s specifically tailored to those who enjoy hentai porn – for the unaware, hentai is defined as ‘a subgenre of the Japanese genres of manga and anime, characterized by overtly sexualized characters and sexually explicit images and plots.’
PASo not cartoons you could share with the kids, then.
In a post on their website, the team at vpnMentor said:
Our team was able to access this database because it was completely unsecured and unencrypted.
The team did say that the information wasn’t necessarily stolen – but it was lying there open for the taking, which in itself is dangerous enough.
It’s easy to see: if Luscious’ users signed up to the website with email addresses similar to their real name, by the powers of deduction and their location data, a hacker could narrow down the user’s identity. They estimated 20 per cent of Luscious’ users signed up with a fake email address – so anonymity is clearly a concern.
Wikimedia CommonsAlso, the team at vpnMentor said when they discovered the breach, they realised users’ uploads were available to steal – meaning a blackmailer could tie a name to a real-life pornographic image.
The vpnMentor team added:
The highly sensitive and private nature of Luscious’ content makes users incredibly vulnerable to a range of attacks and exploitation by malicious hackers.
The impact of this data breach on users could be devastating, personally and financially. Activity on adult sites like Luscious is the most private in nature, and nobody ever expects it to be revealed.
Its exposure could be ruinous for a victim’s relationships and personal lives. The information made available in Luscious’ databases gives criminal and malicious hackers many options to use this data for illicit gains and exploiting users.
Luscious rectified the issue on August 19 after vpnMentor let them know on August 15. While the breach has now been closed, vpnMentor said the concern was people could have already been in and high-tailed off with the information.
GettyThe team added that a number of users signed up with government emails, which ‘adds a great deal of additional vulnerability not just to the users, but also their employers. With access to employee email addresses, criminal hackers can target government agencies and departments in a number of ways.’
In 2015, Ashley Madison was hacked. Less a porn site and more a service dedicated to helping people have affairs, the fallout from the breach was catastrophic. Mashable reported at least two of the website’s clients committed suicide as a result of the information leak.
Keep your wits about you while navigating the web; particularly when accessing sensitive material.
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.