Dating Site Adult Friend Finder Compromised: Up to 4 Million Daters Affected

As if dating isn't stressful enough, now an adult hook-up site has admitted to a data breach. An IT consultant discovered files from Adult Friend Finders listed in a forum, supposedly by a Thai hacker seeking revenge for a friend who was owed a large sum of money. 

The company is working with law enforcement and a forensics research company to try to get to the bottom of the breach. Information obtained by the hacker included names, email addresses, website handle, state, zip code, sex, race, date of birth, and IP addresses of between 3.5 and 4 million of the site's 60 million users. It is unknown if payment card information was part of the compromise.

It's suspected that the information will be used for large amounts of spam and phishing, as messages in the forums already indicated a lot of the information has been sold. Therefore, if you do use the Adult Friend Finder service, be extra cautious about opening attachments and clicking links in email messages. However, since phishing still accounts for spreading the vast majority of malware, whether you use that service or not, it's always advised to avoid clicking links and opening attachments. A safer way to get to a website is to manually type the URL into the address bar of the browser or use a previously bookmarked link.

Also, take some time to learn how to recognize a phishing attempt. A giveaway is the garbled or nonsense address when you hover the mouse cursor over the link. Pay attention to the "to" and "from" addresses as well. Typically, in a phishing or spam email message, those are also nonsense. That said, it is also very easy to fake an email message to make it look like someone known to the recipient, so always use caution and confirm with those you know before opening links or attachments.

Criminals can possibly use the information for blackmail or extortion of those who may not want anyone to know they were using the site. If you receive any type of blackmail or extortion notice, contact law enforcement immediately.

Adult Friend Finder has stated that its top priority is to protect user information and that they are taking steps to continue doing so after this compromise. It has hired a security company to investigate in hopes of tracing the breach back to the perpetrator.