Pornhub has reportedly been hacked by a group called ShinyHunters. The hacking group had sent extortion demands.

Apparently, they acquired Pornhubs premium users' search and watch history data from a third-party service called Mixpanel that was compromised.

Of course, like many data breaches, Mixpanel is claiming the data didn't come from their recent security incident in November of this year (2025).

You can read more about it here on Bleeping Computer.

Pornhub Data Leaked

So pornhubs premium users' data was leaked. Who really cares? I'm not a fan of ransomware hacking groups, but I also don't feel sorry for people paying for Pornhub Premium. Especially if you signed up with an email address that can be tracked to you. If you don't have the sense to use an anonymous email and credit card on a website you search for porn you don't want others to know about, then I don't feel sorry for you.

ShinyHunters Hacking Group

According to Wikipedia:

ShinyHunters is a black-hat criminal hacker and extortion group that is believed to have formed in 2020 and is said to have been involved in a massively significant amount of data breaches. The group often extorts the company they've hacked, if the company does not pay the ransom the stolen information is often sold or leaked on the dark web.

Notably, they breached Google:

On June 4, 2025, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) reported on UNC6040, a cluster of voice-phishing campaigns targeting organizations' Salesforce instances. The attackers used modified versions of Data Loader to export Salesforce data and subsequently extort the victims. GTIG attributed the activity to ShinyHunters.

How to Protect Yourself

So how could you have protected yourself from this data breach? Besides not signing up for Pornhub.

Use an Anonymous Email

This is the easiest part you could do. Simply sign up for a service like ProtonMail. You could even just use a Gmail account not tied to anything else.

Use a Privacy Focused Debit Card

I'm not sure if a prepaid debit card will work for this case. You could use a service like privacy.com. The service provides you with anonymous debit card numbers you can use for online services.

Conclusion

What did we learn from this? Mainly, don't search for porn you don't want others to find out about with an account that can trace back to you. There are so many ways you can give yourself better protection online. Don't be a fool and get caught with your pants down.