Hackers Out, Offer For Sale Private Info Of Over 1 Million Users Of Beautiful People Dating Web Site
It's beginning to look a lot like no website on Earth can be trusted with our important data, as attackers are attracted to any service that has a huge number of users. They're even attracted to websites that seek out attractiveness, apparently, as BeautifulPeople.com has had its mammoth user database stolen. Are you unsightly and want revenge? Good news! The database is for sale.
As its name implies, BeautifulPeople.com is a site dedicated to hooking up good-looking blokes and gals. That makes it quite an exclusive site, especially thanks to the fact that you have to be approved by the community at large in order to gain access. Got a big nose? Overweight? Take a photo in bad light? Is your name "Mulva"? You're not likely to be welcomed.
Well, if the 1.1 million active members on the site are concerned about their elite stats getting into the hands of peasants, their anxiety should start increasing since their data is in the hands of someone who's more than happy to sell it to the right entity. Muscles and a seductive stare are not enough to solve this dilemma.
Unlike most websites which stores data on people, this particular website kept track of an enormous number of user stats. According to Australian security expert Troy Hunt, the number of individual attributes total over 100, causing most of us regular folks to wonder how there can possibly be so many pieces of information someone needs to immediately know about another.
Naturally, this information includes an address (no credit cards), but also sexual preference and even income. If that wasn't bad enough, it also includes some 15 million private messages, which on a dating site you can imagine can get pretty lewd - or awesome, depending on personal taste.
For what it's worth, BeautifulPeople.com has said that users which signed up after last July are unaffected. Those that are will be contacted -- likely by an equally beautiful support representative.
This marks the second time in recent memory that a high profile dating site has been breached, so hopefully this incident acts as a definitive lesson for all of the others out there with lax security.