Ashley Madison’s Canadian parent company, Avid Life Media, is offering a C$500,000 (US$376,000) reward for information on the hackers, BBC News reported.
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A week ago today around 36 million customers of the affairs website Ashley Madison had their personal information revealed by a hacking organization.
Bryce Evans, the acting staff superintendent of Toronto police, called the action to be illegal and said that this would not be tolerated at any cost.
Canadian police are also investigating two unconfirmed suicides that some reports have linked to the disclosure of the site’s customer list, Evans said.
He said this hack is way beyond fun and games. Users can send direct messages to the account without needing to follow it. We’ll update this story if and when we hear back. The Ashley Madison users’ data stolen by hackers included credit card information, addresses, phone numbers, and even photos and sexual fantasies. The extramartital dating site even has the tantalizing tagline: “Life is too short, have an affair”.
The hackers dubbed themselves the Impact Group.
When it comes to who’s using the Ashley Madison website in Canada, it looks like Londoners are leading the pack percentage-wise.
Criminals “have already engaged in online scams by claiming to provide access to the leaked website”, Evans said.
It’s entirely possible that the traumatic and embarrassing revelations related to the the Ashley Madison data dumps could drive some people to suicide, especially as opportunistic extortionists have started demanding Bitcoin in exchange for silence.
Police are seeking information from members of the wider hacker community that might aid their investigation.
The message was accompanied by rockers AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck“.
Evans said his force is working with the FBI and Homeland Security in the USA to assist with the investigation.
Evans also said the hacking had spawned online scams that fraudulently claimed to be able to protect Ashley Madison clients’ data for a fee.
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Hakers then recently released detailed records on millions of people from several countries registered with the website.
