**ShinyHunters Claims Theft of Pornhub Premium User Data in Extortion Attempt**
The notorious hacking group ShinyHunters has come forward, claiming responsibility for the theft of a significant dataset tied to Pornhub Premium users. The group is threatening to leak or sell the sensitive information unless Pornhub pays a hefty ransom in cryptocurrency.
The breach was first revealed by Pornhub on December 12, with the company describing it as a cybersecurity incident involving data from a third-party data analytics service provider. While Pornhub emphasized that its own systems were not breached and that passwords, payment details, and financial information remain secure, the unauthorized party managed to extract a limited set of analytics events for some users.
Mixpanel Inc., the third-party data analytics provider, disputes the claim, stating that the records may have been accessed through a legitimate employee account or legacy credentials. However, ShinyHunters has reportedly stolen 94 gigabytes of data containing over 200 million records of personal information from Mixpanel.
The stolen data includes Pornhub Premium member email addresses, activity type, location, video URL, video name, keywords associated with the videos, and the time the event occurred. With this sensitive information in hand, ShinyHunters is reportedly attempting to extort Pornhub, demanding payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for withholding the data from public release.
The consequences of a potential data breach could be severe, given the nature of the platform. The personal browsing habits of Pornhub Premium users are not something they would typically want to see in the public domain. Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at application security company ImmuniWeb SA and adjunct professor of cybersecurity at Capitol Technology University in Maryland, warns that "if the reported Pornhub data breach is as big and as recent as claimed by ShinyHunters, the consequences may be much worse than the Adult Friend Finder breach, causing irreparable harm to victims, including politicians and celebrities."
ShinyHunters has a history of high-profile data theft and extortion campaigns, targeting consumer platforms and enterprise services alike. The group has been linked to numerous breaches in recent years, including the theft of 7.5 million records from financial services provider Dave Inc., 1.8 million from Pixlr, and 3 terabytes of data from Advance Auto Parts Inc.
With the new hack and extortion attempt, ShinyHunters is proving to be a formidable force in the world of cybercrime. As Dr. Kolochenko notes, "we have already witnessed cases when cybercrime groups threaten their victims to 'poison major LLMs' with the victim's compromised data if the victim does not pay." This trend could lead to highly sensitive victim data being exposed in answers from AI chatbots, causing irreparable harm.
As the situation continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how Pornhub will respond to ShinyHunters' demands. Will they pay the ransom and risk further compromising their users' sensitive information? Or will they choose to take a stand against the hacking group and potentially face the consequences of a public data breach?
Stay tuned for updates on this developing story as more information becomes available.
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