The group who hacked adultery site Ashley Madison, threatening to leak the personal info of users online, has apparently followed through with their promise.
Reports are surfacing around the internet the personal information has been provided in a data dump, 9.7 gigabytes in size.
According to Wired, the info released includes names, addresses and phone numbers submitted to the site, as well as what the user was looking for, however there is no verification whether the details are legit.
Ashley Madison has released a statement condemning the leak, calling it an “act of criminality”.
“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 statement reads.
“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.”
The investigation is still ongoing in Canada, where the head office is.
“Last month we were made aware of an attack to our systems.
“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.”
Read the full statement here.
The site is famous for encouraging people to have an affair, with its tagline being “Life is short. Have an affair”.
The initial threat from the hackers – known as The Impact Team – told Avid Life Media (ALM), the parent company of Ashley Madison, it had to remove the Ashley Madison and its sister site Established Men from the internet. ALM kept both sites online, ignoring the threat.
At the time the threat was made July 20 this year, ALM released a statement: “We apologise 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.”
Image sourced from Ashley Madison website.
