TechCrunch: Cam Network Data Breach Exposed Millions of Users, Performers (YNOT)

Read the full article by Gene Zorkin at YNOT.com

In a report published Sunday, Zack Whittaker of TechCruch wrote that a popular network of cam sites operated by the Barcelona-based company VTS Media “exposed millions of sex workers and users after the company running the sites left the back-end database unprotected.”

According to Whittaker, the network’s database “containing months-worth of daily logs of the site activities, was left without a password for weeks.” Sites on the network reportedly include amateur.tv, placercams.com and webcampornoxxx.net.

The logs included records of when users logged in “including usernames and sometimes their user-agents and IP addresses, which can be used to identify users,” Whittaker wrote, adding that “(n)one of the data was encrypted.” Whittaker also reported that the data also included videos watched and rented by users, thereby “exposing kinks and private sexual preferences.”

The exposed database was originally discovered by researchers at the cybersecurity firm Condition:Black. The founder of Condition:Black, John Wethington, termed the situation “a serious failure from a technical and compliance perspective.”

“After reviewing the sites’ data privacy policy and terms and conditions, it’s clear that users likely had no idea that their activities being monitored to this level of detail,” Wethington said. “Users should always take into consideration the implications of their data leaking but especially where the implications could be life altering.”

In a statement issued Monday by company spokesperson Hector Ros Oliver, VTS Media confirmed the breach, but denied many of the claims in Whittaker’s report.

Gene Zorkin has been covering legal and political issues for various adult publications (and under a variety of different pen names) since 2002.