Ashley Madison Hacked, Hackers Gains Access to 37 Million Profiles

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Visitors to the adultery website Ashley Madison normally had one thing to worry about. How do you keep your affairs a secret with your partner? Now they have a bigger worry. All their secretive affairs might  come into the gaze of the entire world.

Hacker Group Team Impact have breached Ashley Madison’s security gaining access to the data base of 37 million members. The team has access to not just the user information but also financial transactions on the website and other confidential information like photos and user fantasies. The website had an additional feature where users could completely delete information after they leave the site by paying 15$ but according to Team Impact that feature is not completely functional. The hacker group has threatened to reveal all the data unless the website is shut down completely.

Avid Life Media which runs the website has confirmed the website hack and ensured that they are taking measures to remove the data published online. ALM’s chief executive Noel Biderman in a press statement said “We’re on the doorsteps of confirming who we believe is the culprit, and unfortunately that may have triggered this mass publication, 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.”

Users are the ones with the most worried about the hacking and the leak of private information. One Brisbane man told ninemsn “When I heard about the hack my stomach turned over, I just thought, ‘oh s—t, what am I going to do?’ I didn’t know who to ask to get advice. There is no knowing what to do. I feel sick thinking about my ex-wife and kids finding out.”

Dating website have often come under scrutiny for not prioritising user security with insufficient precautions taken to encrypt sensitive user data.