Brazzers, an adult website, was hit by a major data hack that sent the information of 800,000 users online. The fact that anyone who wishes to search the database by either email or name will do so has spurred worries among users and security experts.
The Brazzers breach allegedly contained 790,724 unique email addresses together with the username and passwords of the individuals registered on the site, according to Tech Worm. The leak was seemingly different from the people who signed up and paid for access to the site. It had information for users who signed up for Brazzers forum, which did not require subscription.
Some of the users took precaution against the hack. One of the users spoke with Motherboard pointing out that the risks were evident in exposing personal information to a third party.
"It's unfortunate that my information was included in the breach, but that's the risk you run making an account anywhere on the web," the user said in an email to the publication.
Other user said that they used fake email addresses that could not be tracked back to them. Even those who took precaution to hide their identity indicated concern that the security of the website had been hacked.
While the information hit the internet recently, it seems that the website breach actually happened about four years ago. The company's public relations manager, Matt Stevens, told the publication that the details from the leak match a data breach that happened in 2012 on the website's forum because of the susceptibility in third-party software.
Stevens added that accounts were shared between Brazzers and the forum, which was created for user convenience. The move made a small section of user accounts to be exposed and the developers took corrective measures shortly after the incident to protect users.
The latest hack comes about one year after another high-profile information breach from an adult website, Ashley Madison. The infidelity-promoting site that was hit by hackers in 2015 as well had user information flood online.
While the Brazzers data breach contains only email and password information and not personal details like actual names, social security numbers, or credit card numbers, it is still considered a major data breach. According to reports, there could still be identifiable information such as work email addresses or emails that have actual names contained in the data dump.