Government email linked to adultery site

Leak: Web experts warn appearing on list does not confirm a link to Ashley Madison and SNP MP says her ‘out-of-use’ email address was ‘harvested by hackers’

The alleged leak of user data hacked from adultery site Ashley Madison could be larger than first thought, as email addresses that claim to be linked to the Government appear among the list.

But web experts have warned that appearing on the list of users does not confirm a link to the site, as Ashley Madison only validated email addresses for paying subscribers, meaning that made-up, out- of- use and invalid addresses could have been used to register for the site.

SNP MP Michelle Thomson has already denied any connection with the site after an email address allegedly linked to her appeared among the data posted.

The MP for Edinburgh West said the “out-of-use” email address had been “harvested by hackers”.

The group behind the attack – The Impact Team – breached Ashley Madison’s servers last month, and now claim to have released this data to the Dark Web; a sub-level of the internet that can not be accessed through normal browsers, and is often described as the “internet black market”.

Others have since posted sections of the alleged list more generally online, and among the contents are email addresses claiming to be linked to government in both the UK and US, as well as the BBC, Vatican and United Nations.

In some cases, user names and even post codes of users are also listed.

Lamar Bailey, the director of security research and development at cybersecurity firm Tripwire said the implications of the breach could be very personal for some if proven accurate.

“The data stolen and released has far reaching social implications and people are already harvesting and creating metrics on the data. Sites are publishing which cities have the most ‘cheaters’ using which cities have the most profiles listed on the site,” he said.

“This could play into hiring decisions too because many companies run background checks, Facebook, Twitter, and Google searches for applicants.”

Ashley Madison’s parent company, Avid Life Media (ALM), has branded the hackers criminals.

In a statement ALM said: “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.”