For anyone who has used adult content on any platform, you have probably spent money on ‘tokens’ to chat with a cam girl. These beautiful women are the faces behind the screens of many porn sites and apps. They entice horny men with their beauty and seduce them by giving them an experience they wouldn’t normally have. But for all the sexual pleasure they provide their viewers, these girls are also subject to a lot of abuse. They’re at risk of stalking, unwanted sexual advances, and the worst: sextortion or online blackmail.
This week, the sex worker porn network VTS Media was hit with an incident that exposes private information of millions of its randy users. It seems the site accidentally left its back-end database containing confidential data of sex workers and website visitors open, unprotected, for weeks. This data includes user names, email addresses, IP addresses, browser user-agents, login timestamps and private chat logs, and attempted passwords (and failed ones) in plaintext.
The unauthorized disclosure of this sensitive personal information puts cam models and their viewers at serious risks of identity theft, fraud, and other crimes. The leak, which was discovered by security researchers at vpnMentor, affects about 20GB of models’ extremely sensitive data, including name, gender, photo, ID photos, passport/ID numbers, release forms, and more. The company’s servers were hosted by Amazon S3, a repository of various file types and formats that is easily accessible to malicious actors.
As the world becomes more connected, it’s inevitable that people will start to use technology to spy on others’ lives. In the Philippines, for example, a growing industry involves women — “cam girls” — chatting and performing acts on camera for internet clients in exchange for money called “tokens.” These young women are at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, particularly because of the lack of laws governing this emerging industry.
It is no wonder that the FBI recently reported an increase in cases of sextortion and other cyber threats against people who have interacted with cam girls. It’s not only the women themselves who are at risk, but also their admirers and the innocent men they trick into buying them tokens. For cam girls, protecting themselves starts with educating themselves about their rights and privacy. They can learn to use DMCA notices effectively, as well as tools and services that can help them stay safe and in control of their digital presence.