Looking to buy 4 million dating profiles? Have $17K?
Want to buy 4 million dating profiles? All you need is about $17,000.
According to multiple reports, the giant database of user data stolen from casual hookup site AdultFriendFinder is going for 70 bitcoins — or the equivalent of nearly $17,000 — on the dark Web.
{mosads}And there are apparently a lot of takers.
The hacker claiming responsibility for the theft wrote in a Saturday post on an underground forum, “I have had so many people ask me to buy the [database] today,” according to multiple reports.
The cache of data includes intimate personal details, including sexual orientation and whether the user was seeking an extramarital affair, in addition to the typical sensitive data like emails, addresses, ages and zip codes.
FriendFinder Networks, which owns the site, said no financial information or passwords are part of the pilfered data.
Still, security researcher and journalist Brian Krebs noted on Tuesday that it would be easy for hackers to user the leaked information to identify people in real life through social networks, such as Facebook.
“I spent roughly 10 minutes popping email addresses from the leaked [AdultFriendFinder] users list into Facebook, and managed to locate more than a dozen active Facebook accounts apparently tied to married men,” he said.
This could put users at risk of extortion and blackmail, in addition to the usual identity fraud and spam, Krebs said.
Attempting to parlay this sudden notoriety into more profit, the hacker is also offering to break into any company or website for roughly $170,000 worth of bitcoin.
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