Despite hackers and cyber threats popping up in the news more and more often, the Ashley Madison hack took many by surprise. On July 20th some anonymous hackers claimed to have accessed thirty seven million user accounts from the dating site that encouraged married people to enjoy themselves and go ahead and have an affair.
Under the motto “Life is short. Have an affair“, Ashley Madison allowed married users to meet other married or uncommitted people and have an affair. It was reported that the hack on the cheaters’ dating site was prompted by the users being asked to pay a charge in order to have their private data deleted.
The users later claimed the data has not in fact been deleted, but Ashley Madison stood their ground saying they did and even without taxing the users any fee.
While the cyber criminals are threatening to leak the private information of the users, the Ashley Madison hack stands for more than making people feel bad for cheating on their partners. We are facing safety breaches and a newly emerged form of warfare.
The Impact Group, as the hackers called themselves, are now apparently holding very sensitive data of the Ashley Madison’s users. They are threatening to reveal all the data if the site doesn’t shut down.
To prove they intend to keep their promise, the hackers have already disclosed the personal information and identity for two users of Ashley Madison. The first victim of the hackes is a man that lives in Mississauga, Canada. The Impact Group didn’t shy away from publishing the man’s full name and even his home address.
The second victim of the Ashley Madison hack was a married man from Brockton, Massachusetts. It was revealed that this user created an Ashley Madison account in 2014, after Valentine’s Day. His profile stated he values discretion and secrecy.
In an attempt to calm the waves made by the criminal intrusion, the company that owns Ashley Madison, Avid Life Media, apologized publicly to the million of users whose private information has been exposed.
The parent company has already started an investigation and stressed the fact that the site’s security has been reinforced after the Ashley Madison hack.
How do users feel about the hack? A married man from DC is blaming Ashley Madison for enabling him to cheat on his wife. During his affair with a married woman he was caught by the latter’s spouse and the encounter ended with a fist fight. As a consequence, he had to end his marriage of seven years.
