Online cheating website Ashley Madison has found itself at the centre of a security scandal after hackers gained access to user profiles and financial records.
A group calling itself The Impact Team has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack and threatened to reveal client details, including names, nude pictures and sexual fantasies, if the site does not shut down.
Ashley Madison is a dating site for married people to meet others interested in cheating on their partners. Its slogan is ‘Life is short. Have an affair’.
About 37 million users from around the world are signed up to the social network, with more than one million Australians connected.
Ashley Madison offers a “full-delete” option to users who no longer wish to be a part of the site for a US$19 fee.
The Impact Team said the site’s full-delete option does not completely remove all information related to a user’s profile and communications activity.
In light of the hacking, Ashley Madison is offering the full-delete option to users for free.
Similar dating sites also owned by Ashley Madison parent company Avid Life Media – Cougar Life and Established Men – also had their data compromised.
The Impact Team has demanded Established Men, an online dating site connecting young women to successful men, also shut down.
Avid Life Media said in a statement: “We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information.
“We have always had the confidentiality of our customers’ information foremost in our minds, and have had stringent security measures in place, including working with leading IT vendors from around the world.”
Electronic Frontiers Australia chairman David Cake said that, ironically, the Ashley Madison hacking shows that companies are now in the business of selling trust.
“They are treating user data as something they can profit from. Businesses have got to realise that they have an enormous responsibility with user data and they need to be taking security and privacy really seriously,” Mr Cake said.
Mr Cake said the hacking is just one of many examples of why every person and business needs to re-evaluate the way they look at hacking and security issues.
“This is a wake-up call for us all,” he said. “We are trusting businesses to take our data and privacy seriously.
“We often treat issues about hacking and security as being in the hands of the government and police. But security online is something that everyone and every business should be taking into consideration.”
[…] Flash Player’s vulnerabilities were originally exposed in the breach of IT surveillance company Hacking Team’s confidential files. The large-scale leak was also responsible for the release of personal information from adultery website Ashley Madison. […]