Yes, very much so. And we all know what a big story that was, how extortionists attempted to blackmail users, and how lives were damaged as a result.

Still, it sounds nasty – and there clearly remains the potential for blackmail. Are there email addresses associated with the exposed accounts in this latest breach?

I’m afraid so. Of the 412 million accounts exposed on the breached sites, in 5,650 cases, email addresses have been used to register accounts. The same goes for 78,301 email addresses.

The news was made public by LeakedSource, who said that the hackers targeted Friend Finder Network Inc, the parent company of AdultFriendFinder, in and stole data that stretched back over the last 20 years.

The website of the famous men’s magazine, which was founded in the 1960s. Curiously, Penthouse was sold by Friend Finder Network Inc to a different company, Penthouse Global Media Inc., in , so some eyebrows may be raised as to how the hackers were able to steal information of Penthouse’s users from Friend Finder Network’s systems in .

Penthouse Global Media’s Kelly Holland told ZDNet that her company was “aware of the data hack and we are waiting on FriendFinder to give us a detailed account of the scope of the breach and their remedial actions in regard to our data.”

CSO Online reported last month that a vulnerability researcher known as “1?0123” or “Revolver” had uncovered Local File Inclusion (LFI) flaws on the AdultFriendFinder site that could have allowed access to internal databases.

In an email to ZDNet, AdultFriendFinder VP Diana Ballou confirmed that the company had recently been patching vulnerabilities that had been brought to its attention:

Fortunately, information about individuals’ sexual preferences do not appear to have been included in the exposed databases

“Over the past several weeks, FriendFinder has received a number of reports regarding potential security vulnerabilities from a variety of sources. Lees verder →