On May 22, 2015, an online dating service called Adult FriendFinder confirmed that there had been a data breach of some of its 64 million users’ personal information. In an online notice to its users, Adult FriendFinder said that it only recently became aware of this cybersecurity breach, and that it was working closely with Mandiant, a third-party cyberforensics expert, and law enforcement officials, including the FBI, to uncover the source of the breach. Adult FriendFinder also disabled username search functions and masked usernames of all members it believes may have been affected by the breach. A company representative said, “This means that our members will still be able to log-in using their username and password but the search function will be disabled in an effort to protect member privacy. We are also in the process of communicating directly to members on how to update their usernames and passwords.”
At this point Adult FriendFinder claims that no financial information or user passwords have been compromised, but they have yet to release any information on the specific types of information they do believe may have been accessed by hackers. A company representative said, “As is common with similar cyberattack events, until the investigation is completed, it will be difficult to confirm the full scope of the incident, but we will continue to work vigilantly to address the potential issue and will provide updates on this site as we learn more from our investigation.”
However, it has been speculated by some United Kingdom news sources that over 4 million Adult FriendFinder members information, including sexual preferences, sexual histories, e-mail addresses, usernames, dates of birth, postal zip codes, and unique Internet protocol addresses, have been stolen and leaked on ‘dark’ websites. We will update you on the specifics of this breach once Adult FriendFinder releases additional information as the investigation progresses.