A hacking group has breached a popular infidelity and ‘married dating’ website, threatening to expose sensitive data of millions of users.
Details of millions of cheating spouses could be leaked on-line by a hacking group demanding the closure of the AshleyMadison cheating website. The hackers intend to leak sensitive data on millions of accounts from infidelity site AshleyMadison. The website encourages infidelity and asks people to sign up and have an affair before they get too old and die. The hacking group is leaking data on the cheating spouses, threatening to leak more unless the website is shut down. The unknown hackers have said: ‘Too bad for those men, they’re cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion.’
A million Brits are thought to be registered with AshleyMadison. Two months ago hackers leaked data on millions of accounts from the hookup website, AdultFriendFinder.
The company whose slogan is ‘Life is short, Have an affair’ charges a fee to remove users information and browsing history from their site for peace of mind. The recent hack by cyber-criminals shows that personal billing information has remained on the site (despite collecting a fee of over a million pounds last year for peace of mind), ready to be exposed on-line, including secret sexual fantasies as well as real names and addresses.
The Daily Mail reports:
The hacking group claims to have completely compromised the company’s user databases, financial records and other information which users are led to believe is automatically wiped from records. The data released by the hackers – who call themselves The Impact Team – includes information stolen from Avid Life Media, the Toronto-based firm which owns AshleyMadison.
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Speaking to KrebsOnSecurity, ALM’s chief executive Noel Biderman confirmed the breach and said the firm was ‘working diligently and feverishly’ to remove its intellectual property.
He said: ‘We’re not denying this happened. Like us or not, this is still a criminal act.’
AshleyMadison promises complete discretion to its users and advertises a ‘full delete’ feature for a charge of $20 (about £13) – which includes ‘removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information’.
But users’ purchase details, including their names and address, aren’t actually wiped, according to the hackers, who say ALM made £1.1million ($1.7) from the feature last year.
The Impact Team posted a lengthy manifesto online alongside the stolen data explaining their actions.
It read: ‘Users almost always pay with credit card; their purchase details are not removed as promised, and include real name and address, which is of course the most important information the users want removed.
‘Avid Life Media has been instructed to take Ashley Madison and Established Men offline permanently in all forms, or we will release all customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails.
‘ALM you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver. We’ve got the complete set of profiles in our DB dumps, and we’ll release them soon if Ashley Madison stays online.
‘And with over 37 million members, mostly from the US and Canada, a significant percentage of the population is about to have a very bad day, including many rich and powerful people.
‘Our one apology is to Mark Steele (Director of Security). You did everything you could, but nothing you could have done could have stopped this.’
The hack comes less than two months after cyber-criminals stole and published user data on millions of accounts from hookup site AdultFriendFinder.
The latest attack has so far seen just a small amount of personal data leaked online.
ALM CEO Mr Biderman claimed: ‘We’re on the doorstep of [confirming] who we believe is the culprit, and unfortunately that may have triggered this mass publication.
‘I’ve got their profile right in front of me, all their work credentials. It was definitely a person here that was not an employee but certainly had touched our technical services.’
Ahsleymadison slammed for ‘zombie’ advert in Australia:
AshleyMadison recently came under fire for running an advertisement depicting a ‘zombie’ wife looking like she wants to hit her husband with a baseball bat.
Ashley Madison’s 30 second ad shows a wife and her husband watching TV while she clicks her fingers on a baseball bat with a look of intent to harm her partner on her face.
However she stops when an Ashley Madison commercial comes on the screen prompting her to ‘have an affair’ and she is transformed back into her normal preened self.
The Advertising Standards Board deemed the scene unnecessary, saying there is ‘no requirement’ for the woman to be holding the bat and agreed with complaints which claimed it suggests resorting to violence or an affair is acceptable.
The video details the life of the husband and wife’s mundane marriage.
It documents the couple having breakfast, watching TV and doing housework with the well-known song Greig’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’ playing in the background.
As they watch TV the wife menacingly holds on to a bat as she looks at her husband, however when an Ashley Madison advert comes on the screen she is transformed from a zombie back into a preened woman wearing a dress and make-up.
She then holds her finger up to her mouth as if to whisper and says: ‘AshleyMadison.com. Bringing your marriage back to life.’
