In relation to the compromise of the Adult Friend Finder website, David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab commented below.
David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab:
“Online daters are going to feel a familiar lurch of fear when they hear about the compromise of the Adult Friend Finder website, just 16 months after the Ashley Madison hack and the resulting publicity, shaming and blackmail. From the information available, it appears this is the second time the Friend Finder networks have been compromised, and by the same method of attack, highlighting how little companies have learned from past experience, both their own and others. Therefore, if businesses are unwilling to learn from past attacks, it really is now the responsibility of the government to step in and impose strict legislation to protect users from hackers and lax security practices.
In the meantime, people can take control of their own security by observing the following basic practices as a minimum:
- use unique user names and passwords on each site you use to prevent other accounts being compromised in the event of a breach
- use a credit card rather than debit card on accounts to limit your personal financial liability/vulnerability in the event of a site being compromised
- make sure you have read the security policy/T&C’s carefully before disclosing any information to websites, remembering that once you hand over that data, you lose control of it (rightly or wrongly), so consider what you are prepared to have revealed about yourself.”
