Hackers Post Ashley Madison Data Online, Millions of Users Exposed

On Tuesday hackers released almost 10 gigabytes of user information from a July breach, and revelations are already starting to come from the data.

At the time of the hack, Ashley Madison claimed to have 40 million users, all apparently on the site to have affairs outside their marriages.

As we previously reported, the hackers, known as The Impact Team, made this threat last month.

It hasn’t been and on Tuesday the leak began.

A large part of Ashley Madison’s data stolen by the hackers group has been posted online.

The more than 10GB data leak was offered for download via torrenting websites. Imagine being associated with an AshleyMadison.com account that someone created using your email address – that happened to a writer at The Intercept.

And regardless of whether an e-mail account showing up in the data allegedly stolen from the dating site suggests infidelity, there seems to be at least one group excited about the breach: divorce lawyers.

“Life is short. Have an affair”, says the cheating site AshleyMadison.com, but now many users may be regretting their affiliation with the hook-up service. Avid Life Media, the owners of Ashley Madison, did not require the data for users be valid unless it was a paid account, according to the blog.

In a new statement, Avid Life Media wrote that they are “actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online” and will also “continue to devote significant resources to this effort”.

“We have explained the fraud, deceit, and stupidity of ALM [Avid Life Media] and their members”.

The dumped data includes names, email addresses, some website profile information and credit card transaction details. See ashley madison fake profile lawsuit; 90-95% of actual users are male.

They claimed to have accessed the dating site’s database containing records of its users. “It is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities”, said ALM.

In a declaration for KrebsOnSecurity, ALM Chief Executive Noel Biderman said the company was “working diligently and feverishly” to recover ALM’s intellectual property.

Thieves, involved with this work have hired themselves whilst the ethical judge, or “The legal, executioner, and juror”, the organization said.

Of course if your search doesn’t turn up anything, you can probably breathe a sigh of relief, but like we said, is that really a door you want to be opening?