Posted on February 23, 2019 at 1:30 PM
Own a Paid Subscription to these Two Porn Websites? You may be in Danger
Latest news from Kaspersky Lab: hackers have been increasing attacks on user information related to adult content websites. A malicious software monitors user activity and steals user login data for Pornhub and XNXX. Hackers later sell stolen premium account user information on the darkweb.
Kaspersky Lab insights and reported dangers
Kaspersky Lab is a well-known international company dedicated to cybersecurity that develops widely used antimalicious software. They published a report on Thursday based on analyzing anonymous user data collected by their antivirus software. In the report they stated that their software registered three times as more malicious attacks than last year. These attacks had the specific purpose of stealing user information for profiles on popular porn sites.
The malware is usually of Trojan type. It can steal user details by acting like a random porn application or a media file. It works in two ways. One way is to make a fake login page that collects and saves user input. The other way is to spy on user activity on the device, keeping track of visited websites and stealing user login data when admitted.
In 2017 there were about 110 000 personal devices affected by this kind of malicious software. Also, the software was intended for stealing information on any of the 10 most visited adult content websites. According to Kaspersky Lab, things have changed a lot in 2018. The attacks have mostly been directed to premium accounts on two large porn websites: Pornhub and XNXX. However, the main difference is that the number of the attempted attacks has significantly increased on almost 850 000. The hackers have been using five distinct classes of malware to preform information stealing in 2018.
There are black markets where hackers can sell stolen user information. They are located on the dark web, which is a part of the deep web content that is not indexed by search engines. Kaspersky Lab researched 29 most visited black market spots and found almost 15000 premium user profiles from porn websites listed for sale. Many of these stolen user accounts were provided by malicious Trojan software that was made for stealing login information.
Kaspersky Lab stated that Pornhub is one of the most popular websites for both users and hackers. The reason is that there are many naive customers whose login information can be stolen and sold for criminal financial gain. For example, Pornhub charges 9.99 dollars per month for a premium profile. Hackers sell it for 3-9 dollars on the black market.
How to protect your login data?
There are some recommendation you can follow to ensure cyber safety when it comes to this matter.
Kaspersky Lab suggest users should always make sure to check the website URL a few times to verify that it’s the real and original website address. If you want to buy a premium account, always do it on the official page and buy the official website offer.
Also, the emails users receive from Pornhub or other websites can only pretend to be from the legitimate source. Some of those emails are from the fake sources and represent so called phishing scams. Those emails actually infect you with malware and steal data from your device.
As Kaspersky Lab specifies, most of the malware with this purpose comes in form of a video content. Therefore, users should always be on guard when visiting suspicious porn websites. The important thing is also never to download and install a file that is offered by an unproven and controversial adult content website.
