Watching pornographic material on your smartphone or tablet can carry huge risks, users have been cautioned.
Enterprise security firm Wandera has published a slew of research on porn websites and the associated risks to mobile users.
According to data from the London-based company, almost a quarter of malware on mobile devices originates from xxx-rated websites.
That means watching porn on your smartphone carries a much higher risk than watching it on a traditional PC set-up.
“Smartphone operating systems, especially Android, are not as secure as desktops, there are many vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited by hackers,” Wandera warns.
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And it’s not just malware that users should be worried about.
Adult video sites are typically the least reliable when it comes to protecting user information and data, it has warned.
According to Wandera, 40 out of the top 50 adult sites have been exposed.
Writing on the official blog, Wandera Content Marketing lead Liarna La Porta said: “Pornography and other adult content categories are notorious for lax handling of PII [Personally Identifiable Information].
“In fact, 40 out of the top 50 adult sites were exposed at the time of research. In line with this trend, the personal data of more than 800,000 users of the adult site Brazzers was exposed in September 2016, followed by a successful attack on 400 million accounts on the AdultFriendFinder network in November.
“A year previously, the controversial extra-marital dating app Ashley Madison was hacked, revealing the PII of every single user in its database.”
In the case of Ashley Madison, users’ real names, addresses, search history and credit card transaction records were leaked online.
This information can be used as leverage to blackmail users.
Digital privacy and free speech campaigners Open Rights Group have previously warned about users about this risk.
Executive Director of the Open Rights Group Jim Killock told Express.co.uk: “A database of UK citizens’ porn habits will be very valuable to hackers who could use it to blackmail people.
“As we saw with the Ashley Madison hack, if this information was hacked and leaked, there could be serious consequences.
“It’s not illegal to watch porn but if you are a teacher or a doctor, you might not want your pupils or patients to know that you do it.
“Ordinary people could be blackmailed for doing something that is perfectly legal.
“Hackers could also target celebrities and politicians for blackmail purposes or to sell the information on to the media.”
If you use the same email and password combination across websites – these leaks could leave a slew of your online accounts vulnerable to attack.
It’s always worth taking the time to create a unique password for each of your online accounts.
For example, take the first letter of each word in your favourite song lyric, phrase or poem – and use those letters, which appear like a random jumble, as your password.
A password manager is another way to generate and securely store unique passwords with letters, symbols and numbers.