Ashley Madison Offers Huge Reward For Capture Of Hackers

El Reg approached Ashley Madison’s UK PR representatives for a comment on the hacking allegations.

Avid Life Media said it had been made aware of an attack on its systems.

A representative told the news outlet: “Nerve was exploring strategic partnerships in May of 2012 and reached out to Noel to determine Avid Life Media’s interest in the property”.

“As a result of (Ashley Madison’s) unfair, unreasonable and inadequate data security, its users’ extremely personal and embarrassing information is now accessible to the public”, according to the lawsuit, filed by the Baltimore-based firm of Hammond Law. And we’ve even learned which three zip codes in America were the only ones without Ashley Madison accounts. The team wanted ALM to shut down their operation, and when they did not listen, the hackers released the user information for the world to see. “As of this morning, we have two unconfirmed reports of suicides that are associated because of the leak of Ashley Madison customers’ profiles”, Toronto police service staff superintendent Bryce Evans said at the conference.

The lawsuits, which seek unspecified damages, claim negligence, breach of contract, and privacy violations.

Since last week’s hack, Hazlett said there’s been more interest in the project. But its a worst situation for the real victims, i.e the millions of people named in the hacked dump of data, and their families.

Ashley Madison site owners claimed nearly 40 million members last month, but Wired.com has reported that part of the hackers’ motiviation may have been that they considered the site, at best, misleading. As of Monday, four federal suits have been filed in the United States, two in California, one in Missouri, and one in Texas.

A review of the leaked emails by investigative reporter Brian Krebs has uncovered an exchange suggesting a former company executive hacked another dating website before siphoning off their entire user database.

Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison and its sister site, Established Men, is offering a reward of $500,000 Canadian dollars (US $380,000) to anyone who can provide concrete information on the hackers that would lead to their arrest.