FriendFinder Networks Inc.’s popular adult dating and hookup website Adult Friendfinder has been hacked, with the details of millions of users appearing on the Dark Web.

U.K. television station Channel 4 made the discovery, claiming that the stolen data reveals sexual preferences of users, whether they’re gay or straight, and if they are looking to cheat on a spouse, along with less risque details such as email addresses, usernames, dates of birth, postal codes and IP addresses of users.

Adult FriendFinder claims to have 63 million users, however the report noted that only 3.9 million records had so far been made available online.

Channel 4 claims a hacker by the name of ROR[RG] posted the data to an unnamed Dark Web forum, and that within hours of the data being leaked, other hackers on the forum said they intended to hit victims with spam emails.

Spam and blackmail

Given the personal nature of the material Adult FriendFinder users are likely to be targeted heavily by spam and potentially even blackmailed.

The station found a victim of the hack named Shaun Harper, who claimed that he had deleted his account and couldn’t understand how his details were included in the hack.

“The site seemed OK, but when I got into it I realised it wasn’t really for me, I was looking for something longer term. But by that time I’d already given my information. You couldn’t get into the site without handing over information” Harper said.

“I deleted my account, so I thought the information had gone. These sites are meant to be secure.”

Channel 4 went on to note that Harper had been targeted by “virused emails” hours after the hack was posted.

AdultFriendFinder responded to the hack by saying that they had only just become aware of a potential issue, and has begun “working closely with law enforcement and have launched a comprehensive investigation with the help of leading third-party forensics expert, Mandiant”

“Until the investigation is completed, it will be difficult to determine with certainty the full scope of the incident, but we will continue to work vigilantly to address this potential issue and will provide updates as we learn more from our investigation” the company added.

Ironically in a pledge worthy of closing a gate after the horse has bolted, the company promised “take the appropriate steps needed to protect our customers if they are affected.”

Image credit: mimi-chen/Flickr/CC by 2.0