Now that the titillating details of the Ashley Madison hack have been made public, it’s time for the lawsuits.
Advertisement
The potentially life-destroying hack of infidelity website Ashley Madison may take down its parent company due to a class-action lawsuit.
Acting staff superintendent Bryce Evans of the Toronto police said, addressing the hackers known as The Impact Team, “I want to make it very clear to you your actions are illegal and we will not be tolerating them”.
The group threatened a release of the information if the website was hot shuttered. It’s going to have impacts on their lives…This is affecting all of us.
Separately, the federal privacy commission is opening its own investigation into the Ashley Madison data breach, saying it will be probing the attack with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and in co-operation with other global counterparts. The hackers may have put their cart before their horse in the data breach, as the burden of proof lies heavily on the Impact Team.
Avid Life Media is the parent company of Ashley Madison, a dating website set up for married people or those who are involved in a committed relationship, specifically so the user can seek out someone that he or she is not committed to.
The hackers who took responsibility for the break-in had accused the website’s owners of deceit and incompetence, and said the company refused to bow to their demands to close the site. He said the subsequent leak of his personal information has caused “irreparable harm”.
It has been reported that Canadian lawyers have launched a lawsuit seeking some C$760 million (AU$797 million) in damages. After the information was released, various sites popped up where people can check whether their partners subscribed to Ashley Madison.
The credit-card information of US government workers – some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress and the Justice Department – was revealed in the breach.
The hack has received worldwide attention after roughly 32 million accounts were compromised, including dozens allegedly from North Carolina.
Advertisement
Moreover, McAfee has also said that, on the basis of social engineering, he has worked out that the person who stole Ashley Madison users’ information was a “lone female employee” of the company.
