Anglers Redirected to Pornhub

Visitors to the website of Britain’s biggest angling outfitter were redirected to an adult website based in Canada in a recent cyber-attack. 

Angling Direct PLC discovered that something fishy was going on with their website late on Friday when unauthorized activity was detected. 

On Monday, it was determined that attackers had hacked into the Angling Direct site and implemented a redirect that sent shoppers in search of angling gear to the website Pornhub. 

The cyber-criminals also hacked into Angling Direct’s Twitter account to post a message in which they falsely claimed that the company had been purchased by MindGeek, the company behind Pornhub. 

“Your data has already been transferred and PornHub [sic] premium will be available for your account for a period of one year,” the tweet said. “Register with our email and you’ll automatically be assigned with premium.”

Although no public ransom demand was made, the message did contain an offer to return “information and access” to Angling Direct along with a contact email address.

In a statement released on Monday, Angling Direct said : “The board has appointed external cyber-security specialists whose investigations are underway to establish what happened.”

The company said it doesn’t store customers’ financial data and that transactions that take place through its website are processed by third parties.

The cyber-attack has been reported to authorities in the UK. Angling Direct has stated that should the incident have impacted any individuals, it will contact them in line with UK regulations. 

In a statement, the company said: “We are mindful of our obligations regarding data; it is too soon yet to make any determination around the impact this incident has had on personal data.”

“Importantly, the company doesn’t hold any customer financial data, as our website transactions are handled by third parties.”

On Wednesday, Angling Direct said that it has regained control of its website and social media channels.

“The company continues to monitor its online environment very closely and it has implemented additional reinforcements to its suite of security measures,” said a company spokesperson.

Angling Direct was founded in 1986 and has 39 stores across the UK.