Hackers Claim To Have Dumped Ashley Madison User Data Online

[Agschmid]

A 9.7 GB dump with personal information of people use used the site designed help married people cheat on their spouses was posted on the Dark Web.

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Last month, hackers reportedly got their hands on the user data of 37 million people on Ashley Madison — an online dating service for married individuals to cheat on their partners.

The hackers (or hacker), self-identifying as The Impact Team, promised to release the “secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses,” in a threat that now seems to have been fulfilled.

According to WIRED’s Kim Zetter, the data was posted to the dark web on Tuesday. The data reportedly includes email addresses, profile information, and credit card data.

The contents of the data dump haven’t been verified yet. However, Ashley Madison’s parent company, Avid Life Media, released a statement which is available in full below:

Last month we were made aware of an attack to our systems. We immediately launched a full investigation utilizing independent forensic experts and other security professionals to assist with determining the origin, nature, and scope of this attack. Our investigation is still ongoing and we are simultaneously cooperating fully with law enforcement investigations, including by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Toronto Police Services, and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

We have now learned that the individual or individuals responsible for this attack claim to have released more of the stolen data. We are actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online and will continue to devote significant resources to this effort. Furthermore, we will continue to put forth substantial efforts into removing any information unlawfully released to the public, as well as continuing to operate our business.

This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality. 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. The criminal, or criminals, involved in this act have appointed themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society. We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world. We are continuing to fully cooperate with law enforcement to seek to hold the guilty parties accountable to the strictest measures of the law.

Every week sees new hacks disclosed by companies large and small, and though this may now be a new societal reality, it should not lessen our outrage. These are illegitimate acts that have real consequences for innocent citizens who are simply going about their daily lives. Regardless, if it is your private pictures or your personal thoughts that have slipped into public distribution, no one has the right to pilfer and reveal that information to audiences in search of the lurid, the titillating, and the embarrassing.

We know that there are people out there who know one or more of these individuals, and we invite them to come forward. While we are confident that the authorities will identify and prosecute each of them to the fullest extent of the law, we also know there are individuals out there who can help to make this happen faster. Anyone with information that can lead to the identification, arrest, and conviction of these criminals, can contact [e-mail].

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