Empornium News - Security advice for all users of Sinderella and Oppaitime

[Cindra]

Security advice for all users of Sinderella and Oppaitime


My Fellow Pervs,

It is with a heavy heart that we must share with you the troubling events which have recently shocked many in the tracker community. Because of the gravity of this situation we have chosen to post this as a news announcement to serve as a cautionary tale for all, even those not affected personally.


What happened

All users of Sinderella have been subject to a massive data breach. Their database was accessed and copied and all info is currently being, or has been, released to the public. This was done by an individual who was trusted by Sinderella's staff to help out and subsequently betrayed that trust.

Apparently, this individual and his associates were granted access to Sinderella's servers under the false pretence that they would endeavour to help strengthen the security of the servers. Sinderella's staff soon became aware of the fraudulent nature of the "assistance" that they were receiving and shut the servers down in an attempt to protect user data from exposure. Unfortunately, it was too late as the database had already been copied. Some time later the guilty parties attempted to blackmail Sinderella's staff into granting them access to the servers again or they would publicly release (parts of) the database, which has unfortunately happened. It is commendable that Sinderella's staff has not complied with these demands.

Our strong advice is to change any identical account information on Empornium that you have used on any of these two trackers. And always remember, never under any circumstances use the same password on multiple sites.


Recommended actions for Sinderella and Oppaitime users to secure their Empornium account

‣ If you've ever re-used your password: Change it immediately to a unique password only used on Empornium.
‣ If you've had the same e-mail address, change it asap.
‣ Enable two factor authentication (2FA) on your security page.
‣ We also suggest that all users of Sinderella or Oppaitime who use the same username on Empornium send us a staff PM with a request to change your username, including your desired new username.

If users choose to ignore these recommendations (excluding the username change) and an account breach does occur, we may not be able to recover your account.


Our opinion on the Situation

We often use the word community around here because it best describes what we are all a part of. It might not be apparent at first, but the foundation of the private tracker community is based on trust.

For years, the staff at Sinderella invested their free time into the tracker with no return other than appreciation by the users. They then trusted another tracker's staff to help them out, because there would be no reason to believe the staff of different trackers would betray their trust in this manner.

It is deeply disturbing and disheartening that a group of individuals would betray that trust and expose others publicly in this way. These malicious actions are especially dangerous for the main user group of Sinderella: Koreans. Porn is illegal in Korea and could, in theory, cause legal troubles for the affected users.

Whether or not you are directly affected by this incident we urge you to use it as a reminder that you must take your own security seriously. Please take the time to look at the Recommended Actions above and apply any changes to your account that you feel will best protect you.

[Hogg]

Great informative