Hackers claim to expose cheaters’ data
User information leaked from Ashley Madison website
LONDON — Hackers claim to have exposed data on millions of spouses who signed up to the cheating website Ashley Madison.
A message posted by the hackers alongside a massive trove of leaked files accused Ashley Madison’s owners of deceit and incompetence and said the company had refused to bow to their demands to close the site.
“Now everyone gets to see their data,” the statement said.
Ashley Madison long has courted attention with its claim to be the Internet’s leading facilitator of extramarital liaisons, boasting
that “thousands of cheating wives and cheating husbands sign up every day looking for an affair.” Its owner, Toronto-based Avid Life Media, has previously acknowledged suffering an electronic breakin and said in a statement Tuesday that it was investigating the hackers’ claim.
U.S. and Canadian law enforcement are involved in the probe, the company said.
The Associated Press wasn’t immediately able to determine the authenticity of the leaked files, although many analysts who have scanned the data believe it is genuine.
TrustedSec Chief Executive Dave Kennedy said the information dump included full names, passwords, street addresses, credit card information and “an extensive amount of internal data.” In a separate blog, Errata Security Chief Executive Rob Graham said the information released included details such as users’ height, weight and GPS coordinates. He said men outnumbered women on the service 5-to-1.
A call to Avid Life Media wasn’t immediately returned. The hackers also didn’t immediately return emails.
The prospect of millions of adulterous partners being publicly shamed drew widespread attention, but the sheer size of the database — and the technical savvy needed to navigate it — means it’s unlikely to lead to an immediate rush to divorce courts.
“Unless this Ashley Madison information becomes very easily accessible and searchable, I think it is unlikely that anyone but the most paranoid or suspecting spouses will bother to seek out this information,” New York divorce attorney Michael DiFalco said in an email. “There are much simpler ways to confirm their suspicions.”
Although Graham and others said many of the profiles appeared to be bogus, it’s clear the data breach was huge. Troy Hunt, who runs a website that warns people when their private information is exposed online, said nearly 5,000 users had received alerts stemming from the breach.