Pornhub is the latest company to confirm its customers are involved in a data breach through third-party service Mixpanel. The security incident from Nov. 8 saw data stolen from other companies, including OpenAI.
The pornography website confirmed on Dec. 12 it had been impacted, although it hasn’t worked with Mixpanel since 2021. It said, “The incident occurred within our analytics vendor Mixpanel’s environment and involved a limited set of analytics events for some users.”
The notification from Pornhub says the situation “affects only select Premium users” and it wants to be clear “this was not a breach of Pornhub Premium’s systems.” Pornhub says it is currently conducting an internal investigation to help “determine the nature and scope of the reported incident.”
According to Bleeping Computer, the hacker group ShinyHunters began extorting multiple Mixpanel customers last week confirming it was behind the breach. It sent threats over email saying it will publish stolen user data if a ransom isn’t paid.
ShinyHunters reportedly told Pornhub it has access to 94GB of data of its Premium users’ viewing habits, including over 200 million records of personal information.
The hacker group shared a small amount of the data with Bleeping Computer confirming it includes email addresses, locations, videos watched, and keywords associated with each video. It also showed when the video was watched, and whether it was downloaded.
However, Mixpanel denies this information comes from the November data breach. The brand told Bleeping Computer, “The data was last accessed by a legitimate employee account at Pornhub’s parent company in 2023. If this data is in the hands of an unauthorized party, we do not believe that is the result of a security incident at Mixpanel.”
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Pornhub and its parent company Aylo has yet to comment on the reports of extortion, and it’s unclear what will happen next.
The brand told its customers to “remain vigilant by monitoring their accounts for any suspicious emails or unusual activity.” If that’s you, be careful when interacting with all emails by checking who they’re from and ensuring they’re not phishing attempts. You should also read PCMag’s guide on what to do if your information is stolen.
Pornhub has removed access to its website from six US states in 2025 after various age-verification bills have passed. Those states are Arizona, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming, bringing the total number of states where Aylo sites are inaccessible to 23.
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