Online Cheating Site AshleyMadison Hacked — Krebs on Security In a long manifesto posted alongside the stolen ALM data, The Impact Team said it decided to publish the information in response to alleged lies ALM told its customers about a service that allows members to completely erase their profile information for a $19 fee . According to the hackers, although the “full delete” feature that Ashley Madison advertises promises “removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site,” users’ purchase details — including real name and address — aren’t actually scrubbed. “Full Delete netted ALM $1.7mm in revenue in 2014. It’s also a complete lie,” the hacking group wrote. “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.” Their demands continue: “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.

The other websites may stay online.” A snippet of the message left behind by the Impact Team. It’s unclear how much of the AshleyMadison user account data has been posted online. For now, it appears the hackers have published a relatively small percentage of AshleyMadison user account data and are planning to publish more for each day the company stays online. “Too bad for those men, they’re cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion,” the hackers continued. “Too bad for 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.” ALM CEO Biderman declined to discuss specifics of the company’s investigation, which he characterized as ongoing and fast-moving. But he did suggest that the incident may have been the work of someone who at least at one time had legitimate, inside access to the company’s networks — perhaps a former employee or contractor.

“We’re on the doorstep of [confirming] who we believe is the culprit, and unfortunately that may have triggered this mass publication,” Biderman said. “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.” As if to support this theory, the message left behind by the attackers gives something of a shout out to ALM’s director of security. “Our one apology is to Mark Steele (Director of Security),” the manifesto reads. “You did everything you could, but nothing you could have done could have stopped this.” Several of the leaked internal documents indicate ALM was hyper aware of the risks of a data breach. In a Microsoft Excel document that apparently served as a questionnaire for employees about challenges and risks facing the company, employees were asked “In what area would you hate to see something go wrong?” Trevor Stokes, ALM’s chief technology officer, put his worst fears on the table: “Security,” he wrote. “I would hate to see our systems hacked and/or the leak of personal information.” In the wake of the AdultFriendFinder breach, many wondered whether AshleyMadison would be next.

As the Wall Street Journal noted in a May 2015 brief titled “ Risky Business for AshleyMadison.com ,” the company had voiced plans for an initial public offering in London later this year with the hope of raising as much as $200 million. “Given the breach at AdultFriendFinder, investors will have to think of hack attacks as a risk factor,” the WSJ wrote. “And given its business’s reliance on confidentiality, prospective AshleyMadison investors should hope it has sufficiently, er, girded its loins.” Update, 8:58 a.m. ET: ALM has released the following statement about this attack: “We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorized party to gain access to our systems. We immediately launched a thorough investigation utilizing leading forensics experts and other security professionals to determine the origin, nature, and scope of this incident.” “We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information.

The current business world has proven to be one in which no company’s online assets are safe from cyber-vandalism, with Avid Life Media being only the latest among many companies to have been attacked, despite investing in the latest privacy and security technologies.” “We have always had the confidentiality of our customers’ information foremost in our minds, and have had stringent security measures in place, including working with leading IT vendors from around the world. As other companies have experienced, these security measures have unfortunately not prevented this attack to our system.” “At this time, we have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points. We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber–terrorism will be held responsible.” “Avid Life Media has the utmost confidence in its business, and with the support of leading experts in IT security, including Joel Eriksson, CTO, Cycura, we will continue to be a leader in the services we provide. “I have worked with leading companies around the world to secure their businesses.

I have no doubt, based on the work I and my company are doing, Avid Life Media will continue to be a strong, secure business,” Eriksson said.” Extramarital website Ashley Madison hacked Extramarital website Ashley Madison hacked Extramarital website Ashley Madison hacked Extramarital website Ashley Madison hacked The Ashley Madison website, which runs with the tagline is “life is short, have an affair”, has been compromised by hackers calling themselves The Impact Team who have obtained “all customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions", plus other data belonging to the website operators. The site promotes discrete sexual relationships and encounters at all levels; it has a particular slant towards (and reputation for attracting) married individuals who class themselves as attached. Named after two non-connected female forenames by male founder Noel Biderman, Ashley Madison has more than 37 million users across 46 countries and generates more than £64.3 million per year in subscription fees. The site is thought to boast as many as 1.2 million British members. The Ashley Madison homepage displays an SSL Secure Site logo and a Trusted Security Award logo.

Unprovoked criminal intrusion Website operators at Ashley Madison have confirmed that an “unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers' information” has taken place. “We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorised party to gain access to our systems. We immediately launched a thorough investigation utilising leading forensics experts and other security professionals to determine the origin, nature, and scope of this incident,” stated Avid Life Media , owners of Ashley Madison. Avid Life Media states that it has been now been able to secure its sites and close the unauthorised access points. Security writer Brian Krebs details more of the mechanics of the hack: “Besides snippets of account data apparently sampled at random from among some 40 million users across ALM's trio of properties, the hackers leaked maps of internal company servers, employee network account information, company bank account data and salary information.” Why did they do it? Writing in The Telegraph online, Sophie Curtis gave a rationale for the attack. “The Impact Team said it decided to publish the information in response to alleged lies Avid Life Media told its customers about its ‘full delete' feature, which allows members to completely erase their profile information for a US$19 (£12) fee,” wrote Curtis.

John Smith, senior solutions architect at Veracode, told SCMagazineUK.com to say that whilst this is just one in a long line of customer data hacks, the secretive nature of Ashley Madison and its especially intimate customer information means that this breach is particularly worrying to the site's subscribers. “Whilst Ashley Madison sold a service to its users which promised secure deletion of their personal data, it seems in reality that it did not completely purge all of that data from all systems. This highlights the challenges that organisations face when handling personal data, which may be distributed across disparate systems, and further reinforces the need for strategic and systematic thinking when approaching the security of that data,” he said. Veracode's Smith says that as businesses collect and hold personal data they have a ‘duty of care' to protect that information against a wide range of threats, whether it is a malicious insider (as may be the case here), an external attacker or accidental release of code in some form. Don't say security, say ‘immune system' Director of technology at ‘enterprise immune system' company Darktrace is Dave Palmer.

Speaking to SC this week Palmer says that whether you call this ‘cyber-vandalism' or an ‘insider attack', the reality is that the threat is already inside. “The company admits that the security tools that they had in place did not prevent the attack. Companies need to get real and take this on board, if they don't want to be the next victim. It means embracing an immune system approach [a term his own firm popularises] which is going to highlight the emerging signs of compromise, before damage is done – and abandoning the illusion that you can block all threat,” he said. Palmer adds, “Avid Life Media is right to say that no online asset is safe today. It now needs to work out how it stops it happening again. Ultimately, it comes down to visibility. Did the team have visibility of its networks that would have shown them that one insider behaving abnormally? It looks like the answer is ‘no'. They need to resolve this fast.” In May of 2015, casual dating website Adult Friend Finder was also hacked, as SC reported at the time. Avid Life Media also operates sites called Cougar Life and Established Men, both of which appear to be intact and unaffected by this hack.

This story originally appeared on SCMagazineUK.com. Topics: Hacked infidelity site Ashley Madison offers free profile deletion | Technology | The Guardian Hacking Hacked infidelity site Ashley Madison offers free profile deletion Move to waive account-removal fee may not be useful to users whose information is already in hands of hackers The Impact Team Ashley Madison founder Noel Biderman, who says the firm believes the hack was an inside job. Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters Hacking Hacked infidelity site Ashley Madison offers free profile deletion Move to waive account-removal fee may not be useful to users whose information is already in hands of hackers The Impact Team Tuesday 21 July 2015 04.34 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 21 July 2015 09.37 EDT Share on Messenger Close Extramarital dating site Ashley Madison has apologised to its users a second time for allowing its database to be comprehensively stolen, and is temporarily offering users the ability to fully delete their account from the site free of charge.

The “paid delete” ability, which typically costs £15 in the UK and $19 in the US per account, was cited by Ashley Madison’s pseudonymous attacker, The Impact Team, as a main reason for the hack in the first place . The group alleged that the site did not in fact fully delete all information about a user, even after they had paid the fee. In a statement, Ashley Madison said that that claim was false. “Contrary to current media reports, and based on accusations posted online by a cyber criminal, the “paid-delete” option offered by AshleyMadison.com does in fact remove all information related to a member’s profile and communications activity. “The process involves a hard-delete of a requesting user’s profile, including the removal of posted pictures and all messages sent to other system users’ email boxes. This option was developed due to specific member requests for just such a service, and designed based on their feedback.” Although the stolen information is already in the hands of The Impact Team, the site is now offering users the ability to delete accounts free of charge.

“As our customers’ privacy is of the utmost concern to us, we are now offering our full-delete option free to any member, in light of today’s news,” the statement says. It is not clear whether the move is intended to assuage some of the hackers demands or simply an attempt to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted. The company, which described the hack as an “act of cyber-terrorism”, has been attempting to keep the preliminary data dump from the hackers off the web, and claims success in the matter. “Using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), our team has now successfully removed the posts related to this incident as well as all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about our users published online.” As a result, the six initial locations the attackers posted the information in are now clear. But with the data now in the wild, and the attackers promising to release more, firefighting is likely to be a doomed effort in the long run. Tod Beardsley, security engineering manager at cybersecurity firm Rapid7, says the hack is likely to be extremely damaging once more data is made public, as users will not want to admit they have suffered a breach.

“Dating sites also host millions of intensely private scraps of user data,” Beardsley said. “Users of these services may routinely share risqué photos, checklists of sexual preferences, and patterns of romantic activity that they consider deeply personal. Because of this, any breach involving a dating site comes with a built-in ‘ickiness’ factor. “Dating site users are likely to feel more violated after a breach than those caught up in a retail or government website breach, and they are less likely to reach out for help and advice on how to manage their identity information after a breach. For Ashley Madison users in particular, this tendency to suffer silently is all but guaranteed.” Ashley Madison’s chief executive and founder, Noel Biderman, said on Sunday that the firm believes the hack was an inside job, from someone who already had access to its systems. “I’ve got their profile right in front of me, all their work credentials,” he told the security journalist Brian Krebs.

“It was definitely a person here that was not an employee but certainly had touched our technical services.” Hackers of cheaters' site Ashley Madison threaten to expose user profiles - CNET CNET Hackers of cheaters' site Ashley Madison threaten to expose user profiles Hackers of cheaters' site Ashley Madison threaten to expose user profiles Those who broke into the site are reportedly threatening to post stolen user information every day the "discreet" affair network remains online. Up Next Now begins the @realDonaldTrump era Ashley Madison claims to be the world's leading site for discreet encounters. Screenshot by Luke Westaway/CNET Extramarital dating site Ashley Madison has been hacked, with millions of users' information potentially at risk of exposure. Ashley Madison, whose tagline is "Life is short. Have an affair," is a dating website for married people. Claiming to have over 37 million members, the service was launched in 2001 and is owned by Avid Life Media, a Toronto-based company that also owns CougarLife.com and EstablishedMen.com. The data breach comes less than two months after similar website Adult FriendFinder was hacked, exposing the details of millions of members .

"We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorized party to gain access to our systems," Avid Life Media said in a statement published today . "At this time, we have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points," the company said. "We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber-terrorism will be held responsible." Security blogger Brian Krebs, who revealed the hack , reported that the breach is the work of a hacking group dubbed The Impact Team, who are said to have taken issue with an Ashley Madison feature that lets customers only fully delete their data if they pay a fee. The hacking group reportedly alleges that Avid Life Media doesn't delete this information as promised, but keeps a record. Related stories Hack of online dating site Adult FriendFinder exposes millions The hacking group is reportedly threatening to publish stolen customer records, including real names, addresses and credit card transactions -- as well as internal documents and emails -- unless Ashley Madison and EstablishedMen.com are taken offline.

In its statement, Avid Life Media apologises for the breach, writing, "The current business world has proven to be one in which no company's online assets are safe from cyber-vandalism." Ashley Madison was one of several dating sites criticised in 2012 in an Electronic Frontier Foundation report , which took aim at the site's privacy and security practices. What can customers of dating sites do to protect themselves online? "You could use a burner email address rather than your regular personal one or one that identifies your place of work," security expert Graham Cluley said. "But if you have used your credit card on such a site there is always the risk that they have not properly protected your real name and address," he warned. "Maybe it would be safer if such sites offered broader anonymity, for instance offering users to pay them through digital currency." Hackers are threatening to out millions of users of Ashley Madison, the dating site for married cheaters | Fusion Hackers are threatening to out millions of users of Ashley Madison, the dating site for married cheaters By Kevin Roose Ashley Madison, the infidelity-focused matchmaking site whose slogan is “Life is short.

Have an affair,” was the target of a huge hack this weekend, and hackers are threatening to reveal data related to the accounts of millions of members. The hack, which was reported by Krebs on Security , appears to have breached “sensitive internal data” from Avid Life Media (ALM), Ashley Madison’s Toronto-based parent company. The hacker or hackers, who go by the name “The Impact Team,” stole “maps of internal company servers, employee network account information, company bank account data and salary information,” in addition to information relating to 40 million users of Ashley Madison and its sister sites, Cougar Life and Established Men. According to Krebs on Security, some amount of Ashley Madison account data has already been published online. In a message posted online, the Impact Team took credit for the hack, and threatened to publish more information every day until its demands — a complete and permanent takedown of Ashley Madison and Established Men — were met. “We’ve got the complete set of profiles in our DB dumps, and we’ll release them soon if Ashley Madison stays online,” the hackers wrote.

“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.” via Krebs on Security Ashley Madison, which drew national attention for its provocative ads, has become the largest online matchmaking site designed to facilitate infidelity. It’s safe to say that the vast majority of those users expected their profiles to remain secure and anonymous, and would be horrified if their names and other account details came to light. The hacker (or hackers) appear to have been angered by a premium feature on Ashley Madison called “Full Delete,” which is advertised as a way to “remove all traces of your usage for only $19.” The Impact Team accused Ashley Madison of holding on to certain customer details even after a “Full Delete” was purchased, such as their names and addresses. Noel Biderman, Ashley Madison’s CEO, confirmed the hack to Krebs on Security. He called the hack “a criminal act,” and said that the company was “working diligently and feverishly” to remove its customers’ extremely sensitive data from public view.

In a statement to Fusion, an Avid Life Media spokesperson said, “We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information. The current business world has proven to be one in which no company’s online assets are safe from cyber-vandalism.” Update: tech blogger Robert Scoble has posted this boastful email from Ashley Madison, sent to reporters and bloggers in 2014, which touted the site as “the last truly secure space on the Internet.” Oops. Ashley Madison hack as it happened: Who is named in cheating site's big data leak? Ashley Madison hack as it happened: Who is named in cheating site's big data leak? August 19, 2015 10:28 BST Live Ashley Madison is not the first dating website to have been compromised by hackersAshley Madison Hackers have leaked the account details and logins for nearly 32 million users of cheating website Ashley Madison. The data dump on the dark web by the hacking group Impact Team comprises names, street addresses, email addresses and amounts paid to Ashley Madison.

The group threatened one month ago that it would release the information if Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison's parent company, did not take down the site and its sister Established Men. In a message accompanying the dump, the hackers said: "We have explained the fraud, deceit and stupidity of ALM and their members. Now everyone gets to see their data." Names of members of the British government were reportedly found to be on a list of over 30 million email addresses, along with those from the US Department of Defense. Some 15,000 with .mil or .gov addresses were found in the released data. Ashley Madison's parent company Avid Life Media has said in a statement that it is aware of the dump. 04:50 If you want to find out if your email address ... or someone you know is on the Ashley Madison list, check this website: ashley.cynic.al The developer, known only as 'Rufo' created the website to search the huge database of emails published by the hackers.

Rufo acknowledges that users may not know if the website checker is legitimate but says: "I'm the same person who made the Adobe leaked password checker if that lends me any credibility." A warning though: It will only show if an email has been used to sign up for a profile with Ashley Madison but it will not say if the user has been actively using the site, names, credit card details or sexual preferences. Rufo says: "It is possible someone accidentally or deliberately registered the wrong email address. Determining the likelihood of this is left to you. You'd be amazed how many people apparently don't know their own email addresses, so be skeptical about the results, especially if the person's name is common." 02:19 Political Scrapbook says that after crunching the public sector numbers from the Ashley Madison website, the number of gov.uk email addresses is slightly slower than first suggested, due to duplicate entries in the database. It noted that as with students on the university accounts, a significant number of the Ministry of Defence emails appear to be those with lower ranks using the armymail system rather than "randy generals and Whitehall officials".

The spread of public sector domains are: universities, colleges and research establishmentsL ac.uk (1,716); Government: gov.uk (124); MoD: mod.uk (92), local education authorities and schools: sch.uk (65); National Health Service: nhs.uk (56); police force: police.uk (less than 50). 23:45 Graham Cluley, an independent computer security analyst warns that the list should NOT be taken at face value because Ashley Madison requires no email verification when creating a profile. "You might have joined the site years before when you were single and be shocked that they still have your details in their database, or you might have joined the site out of curiosity or for a laugh... never seriously planning to take things any further." "But more importantly than all of that, if your email address is in the Ashley Madison database it means nothing.

The owner of that email address may never have even visited the Ashley Madison site." 23:44 According to Gawker, Duggar purchased a $250 "affair guarantee" that promised him money back if he didn't "have an affair within three months." There is currently no evidence that Duggar was involved in any extramarital affairs via the hook-up site. But unsurprisingly, Twitter showed no mercy following the latest revelation to surface about the disgraced TV star. 23:38 Duggar's profile included an extensive list of encounters that he was seeking including: "Conventional Sex," "Experimenting with Sex Toys," "One-Night Stands," "Open to Experimentation," "Extended Foreplay/Teasing," "Bubble Bath for 2," "Likes to Give Oral Sex," "Likes to Receive Oral Sex," "Someone I Can Teach," "Someone Who Can Teach Me," "Sharing Fantasies," "Sex Talk." 23:36 More details have reportedly emerged relating to Josh Duggar's alleged paid subscriptions to Ashley Madison.

A credit card in Duggar's name and connected to his grandmother's address was used to pay "a total of $986.76 for two different monthly Ashley Madison subscriptions from February of 2013 until May of 2015," reports Gawker . 22:48 Disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting fame was allegedly a user of Ashley Madison, it has been reported. Duggar was previously named the executive director of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group in D.C. which seeks "to champion marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society." Duggar was forced to resign after In Touch Weekly reported that he had molested five young girls. It has now emerged that during that time, he also maintained a paid account on Ashley Madison . Josh Duggar with wife AnnaTwitter 22:18 Biderman, who has been happily married for twelve years, told recently: "People have affairs for a multitude of reasons. I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all approach to infidelity ...

I believe monogamy is worth pursuing and that it's a worthwhile endeavour." 22:17 Dubbed the "King of Infidelity" Biderman he has profited handsomely from the indiscretions of his clientele. AshleyMadison.com went live in 2001 and is now worth more than $160 million and with 35.5 million members in 46 countries is hailed as one of the world's biggest "dating" sites. 21:29 Ashley Madison was the seventh trending topic on social media in the US after Shaun King, world photography day and Perrie, sparked by the news that Perrie Edwards dramatically broke down in tears during a performance of the Little Mix song The End. Twitter 21:16 As the cheaters database is scrutinised online, it has been reported that it includes email addresses linked to the White House and NASA, as well as the Vatican and the United Nations. Senior professors at top universities are also included in the list. The inevitable revelations to come, of celebrities who have used the site, means the fallout from the latest hacking scandal is going to be felt for many weeks and months to come.

21:15 With families, relationships and reputations at risk after the release of customer data from infidelity website Ashley Madison, Rik Turner, senior analyst of infrastructure solutions at consultancy firm Ovum said the outcome for users of the site is inevitable. "If your name's been published, you're going to live in fear. There's nothing you can do once it's been published." 20:26 There is some hope for anyone who is worried about their information being leaked. This data was stolen on July 11, 2015. Anyone who registered an account after this date is probably safe — but anyone who registered before July 11 should consider some or all of their information compromised. 20:26 Representatives for Ashley Madison have confirmed the compromise to their database and are condemning the attack that is being investigated. "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 Impact Team's official statement on the release of data from cheating website Ashley Madison.

The Impact Team's statement on the release of data from cheating website Ashley MadisonTwitter Data website Dadaviz published a chart showing the world's top 25 cities by number of Ashley Madison accounts. Brazil's Sao Paulo tops the list, while London is ninth. Dadaviz 18:17 Among personalities who have come out as Ashley Madison account holders is British journalist and novelist Celia Walden, who speaking to ITV's Lorraine morning show quipped she is "going to be in trouble" as a few years ago she signed up for the website as part of her research to prepare an interview with its founder. Walden is married to journalist and television personality Piers Morgan. Celia Walden and her husband, Piers MorganValerie Macon/Getty Images Online infidelity site Ashley Madison has been hacked | IT News Africa – Africa's Technology News Leader Online infidelity site Ashley Madison has been hacked Ashleymadison.com has been hacked. AshleyMadison.com, which is essentially a dating website that helps married individuals cheat, has been hacked. The data stolen in the hack includes the company’s databases of 37 million users, financial records, and other proprietary information.

The reveal of the hack came from krebsonsecurity.com . According to the report, Ashley Madison’s slogan for the website is “Life is short. Have an affair.” As the hack continues, 37 million users are now at risk of being exposed for potentially cheating on their partners. A group, which goes by the alias of “Impact Team” has claimed responsibility for the hack – according to the report. When it comes to the critical data stolen, Impact Team has revealed that it will be released to the public. Ashley Madison, which is owned by Avid Life Media (ALM), has struck back by allowing users to delete their accounts for free; however, according to a report via theguardian.com , Impact Team has claimed that dating site does not in fact fully delete all information about a user, even after they have deleted their account. In a statement, Ashley Madison lashed back stating that Impact Team’s claim was false.

“Contrary to current media reports, and based on accusations posted online by a cyber criminal, the “paid-delete” option offered by AshleyMadison.com does in fact remove all information related to a member’s profile and communications activity.” “The process involves a hard-delete of a requesting user’s profile, including the removal of posted pictures and all messages sent to other system users’ email boxes. This option was developed due to specific member requests for just such a service, and designed based on their feedback.” While the site is essentially offering users a way out of being exposed on the internet, the stolen data has already been claimed by Impact Team, which would essentially mean that deleting a profile would be a redundant task. Impact Team has stated that Avid Life Media has been instructed to take Ashley Madison and Established Men offline permanently in all forms, or the group will release all customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails. Among the 37 million users, according to EWN , 175,000 South African users of the site may be compromised.

Online dating can get you hacked With South Africa’s, as well as Africa’s, burgeoning mobile user market and more than half of urban cellphone users now using mobile apps, it’s a matter of time before the wrong information falls into the wrong hands. According to a recent report by IBM , analysis of dating applications revealed that nearly 60% of the mobile dating applications they studied, on the Android mobile platform, are vulnerable to potential cyber-attacks that could put personal user information and organisational data at risk. For 50% of enterprises that IBM analysed, employee-installed popular dating applications were present on mobile devices that had access to confidential business data. With over 1000 dating sites in South Africa and even more spanning across Africa, the potential for information to get into the wrong hands through an innocent/on the side romantic encounter, is real. Darryl Linington Search Ashley Madison’s Hacked Database by Name and E-mail | FOX2now.com Just plug in a name or email address , and you’ll find out if someone who signed up for the service. Check to see if an e-mail address you recognise is part of the database on the web: . Usually, hacked data is difficult to reach or sort through.

Stolen files are posted on the Dark Web (which requires a special web browser called Tor). And they’re traded on file-sharing platforms (which also requires special software and clicking on dubious downloads). But now anyone can check if his or her spouse was cheating — just by filling out a form. Someone has even created a custom Google Map that displays some of AshleyMadison.com users’ addresses registered with the website. It’s difficult to verify the accuracy of these searching tools. But at least one tool, which searches by email address, returns accurate results. CNNMoney verified this by plugging in email addresses of users it has independently verified. The danger of being exposed is real. Many of the cheaters exposed in this hack serve in the U.S. military, evident because they used email addresses that end in the .mil domain. Adultery does, in fact, violate Uniform Code of Military Justice. It’s a prosecutable offense that can land you a year in confinement and a dishonorable discharge. What about people who used Ashley Madison to engage in gay affairs? The website’s users were worldwide, and there are 79 countries where homosexuality is illegal.

In Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the punishment is death. A quick search of a small subset of Ashley Madison users listed two in the United Arab Emirates. Their addresses are most likely legitimate, because they were tied to the credit card they used to pay for the service, according to one computer researcher. This is what Tim Cook was talking about earlier this year when he said we don’t live in a post-privacy world. Absolute privacy of data still matters. The Ashley Madison hack includes customer names, credit card data, physical addresses and sexual preferences. Some users were smart enough to use fake names. But financial data is legitimate. And in total, the data makes it easy to hunt someone down. This information is incredibly revealing. For example, the database shows if a person was listed as a married “male seeking male” with a “someone I can teach” sexual fantasy looking for a “boy next door.” Or an “attached female seeking male” with a “spanking” fantasy seeking “a Don Juan.” The listed sexual fantasies range from master/slave relationships to cross dressing and exhibitionism. This hack proves that you need to exercise extreme caution if you’re going to share your deepest, darkest secrets.

Using your real name or payment information is a hazard. No website is impenetrable. Few websites practice good security standards. Even major American banks use second-rate security. AshleyMadison.com had it even worse. As a hive of cheaters, it has long been the antagonist of betrayed spouses. It was an inevitable target for hackers. And the company behind the website, Avid Life Media, knew it couldn’t protect user data. That’s why, in the fine print, Ashley Madison says, “We cannot ensure the security or privacy of information you provide through the Internet.” Compare that to the lofty promise it makes on the website front door for “100% discreet service.” Ashley Madison condemns attack as experts say hacked database is real | Technology | The Guardian Hacking Ashley Madison condemns attack as experts say hacked database is real Data published from infidelity website includes dating profiles with names, addresses, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and partial credit card numbers Ashley Madison founder Noel Biderman. Hackers calling themselves Impact Team obtained customer details from the adultery website.

Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters Hacking Ashley Madison condemns attack as experts say hacked database is real Data published from infidelity website includes dating profiles with names, addresses, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and partial credit card numbers Wednesday 19 August 2015 06.35 EDT First published on Tuesday 18 August 2015 19.55 EDT Close This article is 1 year old Hackers have released what they claim to be the personal information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card numbers of 37 million users of the infidelity site Ashley Madison . Ashley Madison condemned the attack but stopped short of verifying the information leaked online was genuine. The data release will inevitably lead to anxious partners attempting to search for the names or email addresses of people they suspect may have used the site, whose tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair”. I don’t regret my Ashley Madison affair – the site helped me to live again | Anonymous Read more The 10 gigabyte database file was released on BitTorrent and the dark web on Tuesday night and includes email and postal addresses, user descriptions, weight and height, encrypted passwords, partial credit card numbers and transaction details.

The Guardian confirmed that the email address and details of a Guardian journalist who had used Ashley Madison as part of an investigation is in the database released on Tuesday night. The hackers, who called themselves Impact Team and stole the user database in an attack in July , demanded that Ashley Madison and its sister site Established Men, both owned by Toronto-based Avid Life Media, be taken offline, threatening to release the personal information in 30 days if their conditions were not met. “Avid Life Media has failed to take down Ashley Madison and Established Men. We have explained the fraud, deceit and stupidity of ALM and their members. Now everyone gets to see their data,” said Impact Team in a statement released with the Ashley Madison data. Ashley Madison said: “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.” In the Ashley Madison era, marriage needs a rethink | Gaby Hinsliff Read more Data appears authentic Several security researchers have been analysing the data and are suggesting that the database is real and contains the personal details of real Ashley Madison members. “I’ve now spoken with three vouched sources who all have reported finding their information and last four digits of their credit card numbers in the leaked database,” said Brian Krebs , who broke the news of the original hack. Rob Graham, researcher from Errata security, said he was still analysing the leaked data but agreed that “it appears legit. I asked my Twitter followers for those who had created accounts. I have verified multiple users of the site, one of which was a throwaway account used only on the site. Assuming my followers aren’t lying, this means the dump is confirmed.” Troy Hunt (@troyhunt) The debate about the authenticity of the Ashley Madison breach is as good as over, too many independent points of verification to be fake.

August 19, 2015 Fake accounts and leaked emails Ashley Madison did not confirm whether the leaked data was legitimate, but said: “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.” At one stage Ashley Madison did not verify email addresses for new user accounts, which allowed the creation of many fake accounts, including those of high profile politicians. “I could have created an account at Ashley Madison with the address of barack.obama@whitehouse.gov, but it wouldn’t have meant that Obama was a user of the site,” explained independent security researcher Graham Cluley . Within the database appears to be over 10,000 US military email addresses and 100s of US government addresses. A collection of internal Ashley Madison communications were also included, which appear to suggest that the site’s senior staff were concerned about the possibilities of a hacking attack. George Anderson, director at cybersecurity firm Webroot, said: “While readers’ morals may conflict either seeing this group of hackers as good or bad guys, the fact remains that Impact Team illegally obtained sensitive personal info.

I’d imagine the fallout is divorces, firings and blackmail – really personally malicious and upsetting stuff. There are no moral judgments on this except the immorality of hackers. So the ‘what now?’ is pretty nasty and the site users will probably be considering a class action for negligence.” Biderman to step down as CEO of infidelity website as third leak of emails is released and company pledges to restore service to members Published: 28 Aug 2015 Production company OutEast Entertainment is pitching a series inspired by the recently hacked infidelity website to US networks Published: 26 Aug 2015 Second, larger cache of data includes emails from CEO Noel Biderman and source code for the website and apps, days after initial release of user information Published: 20 Aug 2015 The former 19 Kids and Counting star posted a statement a day after he was revealed to have allegedly held an account on the spousal cheating site Published: 20 Aug 2015

Question: What is the extramarital dating website whose subscription list was hacked in July 2015?
Answer: Ashley Madison