Pornhub User Data Reportedly Stolen by Hacker Group ShinyHunters, Threaten to Expose

Pornhub is reportedly being extorted by a hacker group, which has allegedly stolen a large volume of its user data. As per multiple reports, a group known as ShinyHunters claimed to be in possession of more than 200 million records of Pornhub Premium users. The bad actors reportedly shared a small sample of the data with media outlets, and it is said to be authentic. However, questions remain on the extent of the exposure, the recency of the data, and the timing of the breach.

Pornhub Reportedly Being Extorted by Hacker Group

According to a Reuters report, ShinyHunters has claimed responsibility for stealing and attempting to extort sensitive activity data from Pornhub Premium users, threatening to publish it unless a ransom is paid in Bitcoin. The publication reviewed a sample of the data shared by the cyberattackers and was able to trace it to three individuals in Canada and the US, who confirmed its authenticity.

ShinyHunters claims to have obtained about 94GB of data, comprising more than 201 million individual records linked to Pornhub's premium service. The records reportedly include email addresses, geographic location details, search keywords, video URLs, and timestamps of video activity, offering insights into users' viewing habits and searches. This level of detail, while not including direct financial credentials such as credit card numbers or account passwords, is still considered highly sensitive due to the personal nature of the content and the potential for reputational harm if exposed publicly.

ShinyHunters has issued ransom demands in Bitcoin, according to Reuters, stating that it will publish the stolen data unless the demand is met. The exact ransom amount has not been disclosed, and the group did not provide details about how it obtained the data when reporting the extortion attempt.

According to BleepingComputer, Pornhub's parent and Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners acknowledged a cybersecurity incident that affected a limited number of premium users but emphasised that the company's internal systems were not directly compromised. As per the claims, the data breach involved a third-party analytics service, Mixpanel. The parent company also added that it stopped using Mixpanel in 2021 and that no passwords, payment methods or government-issued identifiers were included in the exposed dataset.

Mixpanel, on the other hand, has denied the allegations that its systems were the source of the stolen Pornhub data. In a statement to BleepingComputer, the analytics firm said it had investigated its own November 2025 security incident and found no indication that Pornhub's information was accessed during that breach or any other related incident. Mixpanel also stated that its records showed the data was last accessed legitimately via an employee account associated with Pornhub's parent company in 2023.

Notably, ShinyHunters is a cybercriminal hacking and extortion group that first appeared around 2020 and has been linked to a string of high-profile data breaches over the years. The group is known for targeting large organisations and selling or threatening to publish user data unless ransom demands are met. Past incidents attributed to ShinyHunters include breaches affecting Ticketmaster, AT&T Wireless, and cloud software environments, among others.