The Guardian confirmed that among data released are included the details and the email address of a Guardian journalist who had used the dating website Ashley Madison as part of an investigation. The hackers also complained that the company charged a US$19 (S$27) fee to members to scrub their profiles from the site, but continued to keep their data on its servers. “Now everyone gets to see their data”, the hackers said.
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It is understood 9.7 gigabytes of data including card, account details and log-ins, have been dumped on the dark web, which is accessible by a covert internet browser.
Michelle Thomson, the MP for Edinburgh West, said her identity was “harvested” by hackers who published what they claim to be the personal information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card numbers of the social network’s 37 million users.
The fallout from the leak is already spreading far and wide, with the site claiming there are an estimated one million Australian users, and the data of local users has already been found in the dump.
“It also contains an extensive amount of internal data which looks like the hackers had maintained access to their environment for a long period of time”.
A spokesman said: “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”.
After the data breach was first reported last month, hackers demanded that the sites AshleyMadison.com, which is a platform for extra-marital affairs, and EstablishedMen.com, which pairs older men with young women, be shut down.
Ashley Madison, which describes itself as “the most famous name in infidelity”, was targeted by Impact Team in July.
Ashley Madison’s website is known for its slogan “Life is short”. If that distinction matters.
A call to Ashley Madison’s parent company, Toronto-based Avid Life Media, Inc. wasn’t immediately returned. “It is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com”, the site said.
Thieves, involved with this work have hired themselves whilst the ethical judge, or “The legal, executioner, and juror”, the organization said.
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After the hack, Avid Life released a statement saying that it had been able to secure its sites and close the back doors into its systems. ALM appealed for anyone with information on the hack to come forward.
