The idea of having your data hacked from any website is concerning enough, but when it's a site that you tend to turn to when you're arguably in one of your most vulnerable states, it can be even more alarming.
It's been a big year for pornography in 2025, but probably not in the way Pornhub would like.
Currently banned in 23 US states, the adult entertainment giant has also been forced to comply with age verification laws in the United Kingdom, deal with bans in other countries, and could be made to strip away whole categories as the acts depicted are classed as criminal offenses.
For those who question how popular online pornography is, there's a reason that Pornhub is currently the 21st most-viewed website in the world – coming just behind Netflix and ahead of Live.com.
Advert
Even though there were alarming reports that Pornhub was losing up to one million users a day due to age verification laws, the above figures and LADbible's 'For F**k's Sake' campaign, confirming that 77% of Gen Z internet users admit to watching porn, show just how popular it still is.
Although nothing new, Pornhub has tried to pitch itself as the 'Netflix of porn' with its Pornhub Premium offering. Costing $9.99 a month, Pornhub Premium offers ad-free browsing alongside higher video quality, access to 1080p and 4k streaming, as well as faster streaming and download speeds, VR content integration, and full-length content from partner studios.
Even though Pornhub Premium gives you plenty of (literal) bang for your buck, there's a crisis over on the 'Hub' as the adult film site confirms it's been hacked.
Bleeping Computer said that Pornhub is being extorted by a gang known as ShinyHunters, reportedly aiming to reveal the search and watch history of Pornhub's Premium members
In a statement dated December 12, 2025, Pornhub referred to a 'recent' cybersecurity incident involving Mixpanel.
The third-party data analytics provider has reportedly been breached, with this impacting some Pornhub Premium users.
Pornhub reiterated: "It is important to note this was not a breach of Pornhub Premium’s systems. Passwords, payment details, and financial information remain secure and were not exposed."
Others like Google and ChatGPT were also hit by the breach, although Pornhub says it hasn't worked with Mixpanel since 2021. Still, it maintained that it was its responsibility to inform users about the hack.
Just after the FBI confirmed some 630 million passwords had been stolen, it's not been a good run for cybersecurity.
Pornhub says that as soon as it was informed, it launched "a comprehensive internal investigation with the support of our cybersecurity experts." Working with relevant authorities and Mixpanel, the site promised that it is "working diligently to determine the nature and scope of the reported incident."
In terms of what you can do, users are reminded to remain vigilant and monitor their accounts for any unusual activity or suspect emails.
Even though Pornhub is keen to debunk the idea that passwords and financials have been swiped, Bleeping Computer says it was contacted by ShinyHunters, which boasted that "201,211,943 records of historical search, watch, and download activity for the platform's Premium members," have been hacked.
This is said to extend to "Pornbub Premium members' email address, activity type, location, video URL, video name, keywords associated with the video, and the time the event occurred."
We don't need to highlight how having access to someone's search history on an adult entertainment site could lead to some serious issues.