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Explicit content and cyberthreats: 2019 report
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‘Stay at home’ is the new motto for 2020 and it has entailed many changes to our daily lives, most importantly, in terms of our digital content consumption. With users opting to entertain themselves online, malicious activity has grown. Over the past two years we have reviewed how adult content has been used to spread malware and abuse users’ privacy. This is a trend that’s unlikely to go away, especially under current circumstances. While many pornography platforms are enjoying an influx of new users and providing legitimate and safe services, the security risks remain, if not increase.

One of the key concerns that arises when it comes to adult content is the risk to privacy. Every passing year shows privacy is becoming an ever scarcer resource, with mobile devices becoming a popular new infection point. With data leaks happening more frequently than ever, abuse of privacy and its value has yet again become a popular topic of discussion, and a point of concern for many users who may have previously overlooked the issue altogether. The new reality shows this threat is real and quite tangible. Agreeing to a social contract that entails giving up your data in exchange for services, is now widely accepted in our society. It is, however, a completely different story if the data you had no intention of sharing ends up in the open. A situation like that can have devastating consequences and even put lives at risk. Our sexual preferences and sex life most probably top the list of things that we as a society still prefer to keep private, with 28% of users believing porn-related searches must be kept private. However, cybercriminals seem to think otherwise.

Recent news about data leaks relating to pornography confirm the trend. The OnlyFans leak of adult content created by sex workers, which is not only a source of income for them but also information that they did not choose to share publicly, is just one notable incident. This and other examples demonstrate how leaks lead to personal lives being violated, why it is harmful and may even be dangerous. The leak of over 1.195 million users’ personal information from a hentai pornography site is yet another example of how data not meant to be in any way exposed publicly was abused, putting numerous users at risk. Such incidents are happening more and more frequently, and the fault of the organizations that handle such data cannot be overlooked – too often user data is unsecured and unencrypted, despite being a tempting target for cybercriminals looking to make money.

But, of course, there’s more to it than that. To understand which threats await viewers of adult content we conducted the following research.

Methodology and key findings

To understand the risks that may be associated with pornographic content online, we researched several types of threats. We evaluated mobile and PC-focused malware disguised as adult content to see what kind of files users might be downloading and thus putting themselves at risks. We tested whether and to what extent violent content and adult dating apps are used by cybercriminals as a disguise for malware distribution. We examined the privacy aspect of adult content consumption and dangers associated with privacy breaches – from malware hunting for credentials to pornographic websites, to what kind of sex-related content gets leaked into the dark web. We also analyzed phishing and spam linked to porn and sex dating to see what kind of content users should be wary of. Using Kaspersky Security Network – the infrastructure dedicated to processing cybersecurity-related data streams from millions of voluntary participants around the world – we measured the number and type of threats users have encountered in recent years.

Additionally, we dived into underground online markets and learnt what kind of sex-related personal data is for sale and what kind of scams are discussed among the cybercriminal fraternity.

As a result, we discovered the following:
  • Mobile porn-related threats are growing, while PC-focused malware and potentially unwanted applications are becoming less appealing to cybercriminals. The number of mobile users attacked more than doubled from 19,699 in 2018 to 42,973 in 2019. By contrast, there was a drop in PC-based threats from
  • Cybercriminals strive for more flexibility when it comes to choosing the kind of malware to distribute – almost two out of every five users attacked by porn-related PC threats have been hit by Trojan-Downloaders (39.6%) that enable other types of malware to be installed later.
  • The number of users attacked by malware hunting for credentials to access pornography websites has dropped, while the number of the malware attacks continues to grow, increasing by 37% from 2018 to 2019 and reaching a total of 1,169,153 in 2019. This demonstrates the persistence of botnets in attacking the same users – a radically different picture to 2018.
  • Privacy becomes an even bigger concern for users when it comes to adult content. Things like leaked personal images and stolen premium subscriptions for pornography sites remain in high demand, with the theme of sex continuing to be used by cybercriminals as an easy way to make money.
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