Porn films have been produced for as soon as there was a way to capture moving images. As time went on, the genre grew from a few illegal dirty pictures into the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today and it’s mostly thanks to Internet streaming. And that’s when the cyber-security issues start.
Porn and Security – The Current State of Video Streaming
Even if you’re not a regular porn user, chances are that you still know about the crazy ads often present on streaming services like PornHub, RedTube, xHamster, XVideos, and the thousands of other sites available online. Ads informing you that there are attractive women that are just dying to have sex with you, or banners informing you of magical ways to enlarge certain parts of your body. Sadly, real life doesn’t work this way, and these ads are simple click-bait.
The problem arises when these click-bait ads end up distributing malicious content – ransomware, adware, browser hijackers, you name it. And why is that?
Porn and Adware
The predicament with advertising on porn sites is that most mainstream companies don’t want their logo right next to a sweaty orgy. That’s why the cliantele of porn ads is limited to other porn sites and cyber-scammers.
Running a video streaming service costs money. By now it should be common knowledge that even “free” web series require payment and porn sites are not an exception. The scammers can afford to pay for these ads from the money they extort from their victims, and most “naughty” sites are willing to look the other way. Even if you’re no willing to pay for the service these domains provide, some unlucky victim of a cyber-scam will have to.
The problem of “free” content goes beyond that. Most sites collect our personal information, but that’s a discussion for another time. Virtually all popular sites have shady data collection, but that data is rarely available for use outside of the advertisers who own it and the government, which is a problem in its right. The nature of the pornographic content makes it hard for the host sites to turn “legit” in the same way as Facebook, Twitter, or Google.
What Can Be Done About It?
There are some simple solutions that can be applied. Celibacy is one of them, but it doesn’t always work in practice. That’s why you should:
- Never bite the click-bait
- Consider getting a premium account on official production companies
- Get an anti-malware protection tool
We can all hope that this shady practice will stop, but as of now, it seems very doubtful. Porn will always be considered somewhat distasteful, and that makes it harder for the sites to turn legit. Another problem is that people still avoid paying for this service because almost all online payments are traced. Few people would want a bank trail of their pornographic activity. Let’s also not forget that many people have their weird kinks and fetishes, which makes the situation even more complex.
