According to recent reports, two online platforms that cater to gay hookups, namely TruckerSucker and CityJerks, have experienced security breaches.
These breaches have resulted in unauthorized access and theft of user's confidential and personal information.
Disturbingly, these stolen databases are now being sold on dark web forums.
Earlier in the week, an individual notified Troy Hunt, the creator and operator of Have I Been Pwned, a website dedicated to alerting users to data breaches, about two dating platforms that had been compromised by hackers.
Hunt subsequently examined the stolen information and informed TechCrunch that user data such as usernames, email addresses, passwords, profile photos, sexual orientation, date of birth, city and state of residence, IP addresses, and biographical information have been obtained.
Additionally, the passwords were encrypted with an inappropriate algorithm, which could be vulnerable to decryption, which could allow unauthorized persons to view the original passwords.
In addition to personal information, the breached data also contains user messages containing details of sexual preferences and meeting arrangements.
This indicates a significant violation of the privacy of those affected.
The breach reportedly affected more than 80,000 people, with approximately 8,000 TruckerSucker users and 77,000 CityJerks users having their information compromised.
It appears that the two breached websites have strikingly similar visual design, suggesting that they may be operated by the same company and use the same content management system (CMS).
This similarity may have made the websites vulnerable to the same type of attack.
However, without further information from the website owners, it is difficult to determine the exact method used by the attackers to gain unauthorized access to the data.
According to the seller's dark web forum post announcing the stolen data, TruckerSucker's database contains information on 8,000 users.
Meanwhile, the post about the CityJerks breach claims that the database contains data from 77,000 users.
