Massive data leak puts thousands of cam models at risk

Security researchers with vpnMentor have found a massive and potentially dangerous data breach affecting adult entertainment network PussyCash and its many affiliate websites. In specific, vpnMentor reports that the highly sensitive and private data of at least 4,000 models has gone public. More than 875,000 files were compromised in total.

PussyCash, which has some 66 million registered members, runs content on websites like FetishGalaxy, CamsCreative, iDesires, Phonemates, and more. Its partners include Xtube, Pornhub, and BeNaughty. Researchers wrote that they tracked the leak to an "S3 Bucket with 19.95GB of visible data on a Virginia-based Amazon server."

Personal data gone public — The compromised files contained extremely private information regarding cam models, such as their full legal names, birth dates, place of birth, citizenship status, nationality, their passport numbers, when their passports were issued and when they will expire, their personal signatures, their parents' legal names, as well as the documentation of their fingerprints.

In other cases, the exposure revealed information about models' height, weight, the gender they were assigned at birth, their home address, the kind of vehicle they drive, and more. For cam models in the United States, the exposure leaked information about their army service if any and their rank in the military.

International leak — The countries affected by this breach include Kenya, South Africa, China, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, France, Russia, Switzerland, Slovakia, Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil.

Extremely dangerous repercussions — As such, vpnMentor notes that the data leak could ruin the lives of cam models by exposing them to identity theft, scams, extortion attempts, financial blackmail, stalking, unemployment, strangers' judgment, homophobia, and depending on where they are, legal consequences.

So far, PussyCash has not responded to vpnMentor's troubling report. This kind of lack of response is bound to worry workers and onlookers. In the meantime, though, researchers on vpnMentor's team implore that people, including those running PussyCash, take basic but critical security measures.

For starters, they advise you to secure your servers. Additionally, make sure you've implemented absolutely strict access rules. And finally, never ever expose an unauthenticated system to the internet. That's a recipe for disaster.