The personal details of thousands of porn stars including financial and personal records have been left exposed online by multiple adult cam sites, a report has found.
Details of more than 4,000 online performers was found in an unsecured database by researchers at vpnMentor.
Pu***Cash, which runs more than a dozen affiliate live cam sites and boasts around 66 million registered users, stored sensitive records of models in an unsecured and unencrypted database, the report found.
Folders containing nearly 20 GB of unsecured files – around 875,000 documents in total – included sensitive data like full names, credit card numbers, social security numbers, passports, dates of birth, addresses, fingerprints, marriage certificates and more.
Other documents included handwritten bios, which told of sexual preferences and fantasies, hopes and dreams, and favorite foods and music.
Some of the files were reportedly just weeks old, while others could be up to 20 years old.
vpnMentor included pictures of documents (above) that were readily accessible in the sites’ online database
Social security numbers were among the extremely sensitive documents that made that were stored in the database without passwords
vpnMentor says they contacted owners of Pu***Cash and one of its affiliates, ImLive on January 4 and only received a response from ImLive three days after informing them of the exposed documents. Pu***Cash reportedly never responded to the inquiry.
‘ImLive finally responded to one of our emails, stating that they would take care of it and pass on the information to the Pu***Cash tech team,’ the researchers write.
It’s unclear which of these sites the data is coming from, according to researchers, who say that it could be coming from one or more of their affiliate sites
For performers, the exposed data represents both a financial and physical security risk.
The type and quantity of data left the performers open to identity theft, with the researchers noting the data was ‘information that we regularly see being sold on the dark web, often at very attractive prices’.
‘You have the full identity theft package at your fingertips’, they added.
Birth certificates were among the leaked data
Adult cam performers also often rely on anonymity to help shield themselves from extortion and stalking.
‘This leak represents a potentially severe threat to those whose data has been exposed. It has many implications, all of which could very well ruin the lives of the models/actors involved,’ say researchers.
‘For some, live adult webcams provide an important outlet; for a few, they can become obsessed with a particular cam model and have a strong desire to meet them. There are those that would potentially follow through with this, thereby stalking the model, if they had enough information about them… Stalking is a gateway to a number of additional threats, including harassment, rape, kidnap, and even homicide.’
The dangers of leaving those types of documents exposed online include stalking and extortion according to vpnMentor
Other potential dangers, aside from the obvious risks associated with having one’s credit card information leaked online, include legal repercussions.
Models exposed by the sites come from around the world and are subject to varying laws on pornography. As a result, performers whose identities are revealed could be impugned.
According to researchers, the sites could have easily avoided exposing information by putting in place a password or other security measures and otherwise securing the servers that store data.
