Lawyers, therapists to cash in on cheating site hacking

LOVE lives and reputations may be at risk after the release of customer data from infidelity website Ashley Madison this week, an unprecedented breach of privacy likely to rattle users’ attitudes towards the internet.

Hackers dumped a big cache of data containing millions of e-mail addresses for US government officials, UK civil servants and highlevel executives at corporations on Tuesday, the latest cyber attack to raise concerns about internet security and data protection.

The hacker attack has been a big blow to Toronto-based assignation website firm Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison.

But many professions stand to benefit from the unfolding saga, from lawyers to therapists to cyber security firms.

Prominent divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said the release was the best thing to happen to his profession since the seventh Commandment forbade adultery in the bible. “I have never had anything like this before,” he said.

The data dump began to make good on the hackers’ threat last month to leak nude photos, sexual fantasies, real names and credit card information for as many as 37 million customers worldwide of Ashley Madison, which uses the slogan: “Life is short. Have an affair.”

The public embarrassment and emotional toll is likely to be enormous on unsuspecting people whose extra-marital affairs may have been exposed on the web. – Reuters