For the second time in two years Friend Finder Network , the parent company of a number of online dating services including AdultFriendFinder.com, which is described by itself as the “world’s largest sex and swinger community” appears to have been hacked according to Leaked Source.  The hacked data includes information from the accounts of 339 million AdultFriend Finder.com accounts, 15 million deleted accounts where information was still stored by the company, 62 million accounts from Cams.com and 7 million accounts from Penthouse.com which is also a part of the Friend Finder Network.  Included in the compromised information were  user names, email addresses and passwords, some of which were encrypted, but using an encryption program readily hackable.

TIPS

This hacking again emphasizes what I have been telling you for years.  You are only as safe and secure as the places with the weakest security that have your personal information.  It is for this reason that you should limit the amount of personal information that you provide the companies with which you do business as much as possible.  You also should use a unique password for each of your online accounts so that in the event of a breach, such as this, the security of your other accounts is not jeopardized.

In regard to this particular hacking.  If you were a member of any of FriendFinder Networks’ sites, you should be particularly be wary of spear phishing, which is when specifically targeted emails and text messages are sent to you with personal information obtained through the hacking that make the messages appear legitimate.  These messages lure you into clicking on links with malware that will steal the information from your computer and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.