Hacking group threatens to expose users of Pornhub
Hacking group “ShinyHunters” says it has stolen data belonging to premium customers of leading sex site Pornhub and is threatening to publish it.
Although Reuters could not immediately determine the scope, scale or details of the breach, the hackers provided a sample of data that the news agency was able to partially verify.
At least three former Pornhub customers – two in Canada and one in the US – confirmed to Reuters that their data was real, although it was several years old. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“We demand a ransom payment in Bitcoin to prevent the data from being published and to delete the data,” ShinyHunters told Reuters in an online chat.
Pornhub and its owners, Ottawa, Canada-based Ethical Capital Partners, did not respond to messages. News of the breach was previously reported by cybersecurity news site Bleeping Computer.
With more than 100 million daily visits and 36 billion annual visits, Pornhub is one of the internet’s most popular providers of sexual content, especially videos, much of which is free to watch.
ShinyHunters shared data that it said had 14 users of Pornhub’s premium service, which offers high-definition videos, ad-free viewing and virtual reality.
Reuters was able to match details of six people in ShinyHunters’ data with information leaked online during previous data breaches and maintained by dark web intelligence firm District 4 Labs. Three of the people affected confirmed to Reuters that they had signed up for Pornhub’s premium service at some point.
Reuters could not immediately determine how ShinyHunters obtained the data. ShinyHunters said they would not go into detail about the breach.
In a statement released on December 12, Pornhub disclosed a recent cybersecurity incident involving third-party data analytics provider Mixpanel that affected an undisclosed number of Pornhub Premium users. The statement stated that the incident occurred in the Mixpanel environment and involved “a limited number of analytics events for some users.”
Mixpanel, which offers its customers detailed visibility into user data and activities, announced a cybersecurity incident on November 27.
The company said in a statement that it was aware of Pornhub’s statement but “found no indication that this data was stolen from the November 2025 security incident or any other incident.”
ShinyHunters is a well-established hacking group that has been linked to a number of high-profile hacks and extortion attempts in recent months.
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