Dating Website Loses Sexual Secrets Of Four Million Users

Dating website Adult FriendFinder lost deeply personal information of close to four million members in a cyber attack. A cyber criminal, going by the username of ROR[RG], not only stole highly sensitive personal data, including customer sexual preferences, they blackmailed the dating website company and threatened to expose and blackmail its members.

According to a report by CNN, a hacker blackmailed the California-based adult dating website telling them the member’s personal information would be exposed online if the company didn’t give the cyber attacker $100,000.

That’s just what the cyber criminal ended up doing.

Other hackers on the forum praised ROR[RG] and said they planned to use the data to attack the dating victims. They would broadcast the stolen sensitive information on the internet, including member’s sexual preferences. They added they would use the data to blackmail certain victims, as well.

In fact, the attacker did post the dating website member’s extremely sensitive personal information, which included whether dating members were seeking an extramarital affair, if they are gay or straight, looking for swinging partners, or into sexual bondage, for example.

A hacker going by the name of “MAPS” wrote the following message on the forum message board.

“i am loading these up in the mailer now / i will send you some dough from what it makes / thank you!!”

The stolen information also included member usernames, zip codes, email addresses, dates of birth, and even the internet address of the user’s computer.

Prior to this cyber attack, the Adult FriendFinder dating website boasted they had 60 million members worldwide. They also promised “no strings attached,” but it looks like a large majority of members had their private and secret lives compromised.

The cyber attacker stole close to four million user’s information, including sexual orientation and members who are interested in cheating on their partners.

Channel 4 News’ coverage said online crime experts were able to get a hold of a spreadsheet of the users’ stolen personal data. The spreadsheet has addresses linked to armed services and government personnel.

The former head of the Metropolitan Police’s electronic crime unit and cybercrime specialist for PwC, Charlie McMurdie, offered his reaction to Channel 4 News.

“Where you’ve got names, dates of birth, ZIP codes, then that provides an opportunity to actually target specific individuals whether they be in government or healthcare for example, so you can profile that person and send more targeted blackmail-type emails.”

FriendFinder Networks Inc., owner of Adult FriendFinder, no doubt is taking this latest cyber attack very seriously.

A spokesperson for from the adult dating website told Channel 4 they’re taking the appropriate steps to help their members.

“We have already begun working closely with law enforcement and have launched a comprehensive investigation with the help of leading third-party forensics expert. We pledge to take the appropriate steps needed to protect our customers if they are affected.”

[Featured image via Digital Trends]