Do you have an active account on a porn site? A teen hacker who simply wanted to show how easy it was to compromise the security system of a porn site did just that. He claims to have compromised over 350,000 personal accounts on just one web site.
If you are a member or have been a member of the Brazzers pornography website, the personal information you supplied the site just might be compromised. According to a report from the Associated Press, a Moroccan teenager has claimed responsibility for hacking into the disused website of the porn provider.
Kate MIller, the director of communications for site owner Manwin Holding SARL, which operates Brazzers and other well-known pornography sites on the Internet, said Saturday it was "currently investigating the issue." A bit of good information for members: No credit card information was leaked.
Miller noted in an email that security was a "priority" and that the company would do its best to protect users' information. She went on to condemn the hacker for "illegal and prohibited cyber criminal activities."
The potential problem prompted emails to those that might be potentially affected by the breach.
The hacker also sent an email to the Associated Press, noting that compromising the Brazzers website had not been done for money. The 17-year-old said he had compromised the pornography website to show how vulnerable it was to attack.
A small amount of user data -- like personal emails, user names, and encrypted passwords -- from the allegedly compromised site was posted to the Internet earlier in the week. Some of that information could be used to extrapolate the users' names and countries of origin.
The hacker claims to be allied with Anonymous, an Internet organization that maintains its mission is the active civil disobedience through the free flow of information, done to safeguard freedom. The group is often likened to a terrorist organization.
If so, he is part of an organization that has not only attacked and shut down websites of the FBI and the Church of Scientology, but also released account information on Bank of America foreclosures that they claimed were proof of the banking corporation's corruption and fraud.
In February 2011, Anonymous challenged the Westboro Baptist Church, a Christian fundamentalist fringe sect known for its virulent anti-gay message and controversial picketing of celebrities and American military personnel. They shut down the Church's chief website, GodHatesFags.com, when their ultimatum of cease and desisting in the Church's neverending crusade of intolerance was not met.
The organization has come out on the side of Occupy Wall Street and Wikileaks. In the heated debate over collective bargaining in Wisconsin that resulted in a 14-person walkout by Democratic Party state senators to stop the vote on the state's annual budget, Anonymous announced it would target the Koch brothers, two conservative billionaires who had reportedly been funding anti-union organizations.
The organization was also instrumental in causing Internet havoc during last year's Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, shutting down websites controlled by those nation's dictatorial governments.
As recently as this week, Anonymous has shut down a CIA website. LulzFinancial, a group of hackers claiming allegiance to Anonymous, debuted in the escalating cyber war just this week, began by hacking into the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs and releasing emails from the Syrian president's office. The next day, they shut down a Westboro Baptist Church's website and released information about alleged members of the white supremacist website Stormfront. On Thursday, LulzFinancial shut down two Westboro websites, GodHatesFags.com and GodHatesAmerica.com for several hours.
The Westboro Baptist Church shutdowns were retaliation for the congregation's posted intentions to attend and picket the funerals of Josh Powell's sons in Washington state. Margie J. Phelps, daughter of the founder (Fred Phelps), posted to Twitter on Tuesday that the Church would picket and that Washington's recent passed law allowing same-sex unions was the reason for God allowing the boys, 5 and 7 years old, to be killed by their father.
(photo credit: George Mel, Wikimedia Commons)
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