Hackers claim to have stolen personal information, including credit card and contact details, of as many as 37 million users of the adulterers’ dating website Ashley Madison.
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Security expert Brian Krebs said a small percentage of the site’s user account data had been published online.
An individual or group of hackers calling itself The Impact Team has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The hack, which was reported by Krebs on Security, appears to have breached “sensitive internal data” from Avid Life Media (ALM), Ashley Madison’s Toronto-based parent company. The Impact Team accused Ashley Madison of holding on to certain customer details even after a “Full Delete” was purchased, such as their names and addresses.
Hacking is the ultimate nightmare for a site like AshleyMadison.com, as it not only poses threat of exposure of important details like name, addresses, and credit card information, it also threatens to expose each user’s elicit affairs and kinkiest fantasies.
The group goes on to demand that Ashley Madison and the other two websites under the ALM group – Cougar Life and Established Men – be shut down permanently.
“We’re on the doorstep of [confirming] who we believe is the culprit, and unfortunately that may have triggered this mass publication”, he said.
The Impact Team claims to have complete access to the company’s database, including not only user records for every single member, but also the financial records of ALM and other proprietary information. I’ve got their profile right in front of me, all their work credentials.
The service, whose slogan is “Life is short. It was definitely a person here that was not an employee but certainly had touched our technical services”.
They continued: “Too bad for ALM, you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver”. Among those the team said would be having “a very bad day” if the information came to light were “many rich and powerful people” in the USA and Canada.
The breach comes just a month after an attack on another salacious site, Adult Friend Finder, was revealed by United Kingdom media outlet Channel 4.
“We apologise for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information”.
The company added that they have been able “to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points.” “Like us or not, this is still a criminal act.”
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Avid Life Media chief executive Noel Biderman confirmed the hack to KrebsOnSecurity and said the company was “working diligently and feverishly” to remedy it. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber-terrorism will be held responsible.
