According to a report by the Internet security website Cybernews, the pornographic website BangBros is suspected of leaking user and model information.
In June, Cybernews’ research team discovered more than 8 GB of sensitive information about BangBros users. This information includes IP address, username, message, country and geographic location, as well as model name, age and description.
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Cybernews information security researcher Mantas Kasiliauskis explained in his report: “While the credentials were not directly exposed, hackers were able to associate IP addresses with other compromised identities.”
Mix and match after dark
Sensitive information is stored on unprotected instances of Elasticsearch, a searchable, distributed file storage system commonly used for large volumes of data. The largest leaked file contained nearly 11 million records. Online news researchers claimed that the data may not have been protected due to an “inadvertent configuration error.”
Cybernews contacted BangBros and the error has been fixed. However, according to Cybernews, users are still at risk if an adversary accesses their data.
“If bad actors manage to obtain this data, they could potentially track the habits of adult content viewers and link them to specific individuals,” Kasiliaskis said. “Combined with other private information, this could lead to serious consequences.” privacy issues, causing personal embarrassment and leading to social stigma in places where attitudes are conservative.”
Mashable has reached out to BangBros for comment and will update if we hear back.
