Camgirl Sites Expose Data Belonging to Millions of Users and Sex Workers – From Passwords to Sexual Preferences Compromised
An array of camgirl sites have leaked data of millions of sex workers and users after they left their back-end database unprotected. A cybersecurity firm has discovered that Barcelona's VTS Media left a database for its camgirl network unprotected for weeks.
An array of camgirl sites has leaked data of millions of sex workers and users after they left their back-end database unprotected. Condition: Black researchers, a cybersecurity and internet freedom firm, have discovered that Barcelona's VTS Media left a database for its camgirl network unprotected for weeks. Information pertaining to logs of millions of people, their usernames, IP addresses, viewing habits, private chats and even passwords have been leaked. The sites, run by Barcelona-based VTS Media, include amateur.tv, webcampornoxxx.net, and placercams.com. Most of the users of these sites are based in Spain and Europe, however, has users from across the world, including the United States. Porn-Addicts Beware! Google, Facebook Secretly Tracking Your XXX Website-Viewing Habits.
The database, which mostly includes information of users from Europe, has been locked down. It is not sure if the database has been used for any other purpose. The logs even include failed login attempts, promotional emails from various sites, all in plain text. The exposed data also revealed the videos that were being watched by users revealing people's sexual preferences. The log also has details on which users were logging in from where along with email addresses that could be traced to their real identities. The data leak has also affected "camgirls" who broadcast sexual content to viewers. Google Sharing Data with US Forces Raises Concerns.
John Wethington, Condition: Black founder, told TechCrunch, "This was a serious failure from a technical and compliance perspective. After reviewing the sites’ data privacy policy and terms and conditions, it’s clear that users likely had no idea that their activities being monitored to this level of detail." However, VTS Media company spokesperson Hector Ros Oliver told Gizmodo that data stored in the company's "main database is encrypted and unreachable". He added that the passwords were not exposed and the breach affected 3,30,000 users and not millions.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 05, 2019 11:07 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).