The personal details of more than 37 million cheating spouses on the website Ashley Madison have been obtained by a hacker group that are threatening to release nude photos and sexual fantasies of the site’s clients unless the cheating website is shut down.
Hackers were protesting the fact that Ashley Madison refuses to delete user data and accounts when requested, unless users pay what is essentially a blackmail fee of $19. Turns out even when users asked for their data to be deleted, it was never done and their information was still on an online computer.
Ashley Madison is heavily promoted by affiliate marketing and is one of the largest affiliate based dating programs.
Avid Life Media, Ashley Madison’s Canadian parent confirmed the data breach, but said the website is now secure. The company is working with law enforcement agencies in an attempt to trace those behind the attack.
KrebsOnSecurity — the Internet security blog run by Brian Krebs, said the hackers, who go by the name The Impact Team, released snippets of some of the compromised data they claim to have obtained, but warned they would release more details, such as customers’ real names, profiles, nude photos, credit card details and other personal information unless their demands were met.
