Large caches of data stolen from online cheating site AshleyMadison.com have been posted online by an individual or group that claims to have completely compromised the company’s user databases, financial records and other proprietary information. The still-unfolding leak could be quite damaging to some 37 million users of the hookup service, whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.”
The data released by the hacker or hackers — which self-identify as The Impact Team — includes sensitive internal data stolen from Avid Life Media (ALM), the Toronto-based firm that owns AshleyMadison as well as related hookup sites Cougar Life and Established Men.
Reached by KrebsOnSecurity late Sunday evening, ALM Chief Executive Noel Biderman confirmed the hack, and said the company was “working diligently and feverishly” to take down ALM’s intellectual property. Indeed, in the short span of 30 minutes between that brief interview and the publication of this story, several of the Impact Team’s Web links were no longer responding.
“We’re not denying this happened,” Biderman said. “Like us or not, this is still a criminal act.”
Besides snippets of account data apparently sampled at random from among some 40 million users across ALM’s trio of properties, the hackers leaked maps of internal company servers, employee network account information, company bank account data and salary information.
The compromise comes less than two months after intruders stole and leaked online user data on millions of accounts from hookup site AdultFriendFinder.
In a long manifesto posted alongside the stolen ALM data, The Impact Team said it decided to publish the information in response to alleged lies ALM told its customers about a service that allows members to completely erase their profile information for a $19 fee.
According to the hackers, although the “full delete” feature that Ashley Madison advertises promises “removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site,” users’ purchase details — including real name and address — aren’t actually scrubbed.
“Full Delete netted ALM $1.7mm in revenue in 2014. It’s also a complete lie,” the hacking group wrote. “Users almost always pay with credit card; their purchase details are not removed as promised, and include real name and address, which is of course the most important information the users want removed.”
Their demands continue:
“Avid Life Media has been instructed to take Ashley Madison and Established Men offline permanently in all forms, or we will release all customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails. The other websites may stay online.”
A snippet of the message left behind by the Impact Team.
It’s unclear how much of the AshleyMadison user account data has been posted online. For now, it appears the hackers have published a relatively small percentage of AshleyMadison user account data and are planning to publish more for each day the company stays online.
“Too bad for those men, they’re cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion,” the hackers continued. “Too bad for ALM, you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver. We’ve got the complete set of profiles in our DB dumps, and we’ll release them soon if Ashley Madison stays online. And with over 37 million members, mostly from the US and Canada, a significant percentage of the population is about to have a very bad day, including many rich and powerful people.”
ALM CEO Biderman declined to discuss specifics of the company’s investigation, which he characterized as ongoing and fast-moving. But he did suggest that the incident may have been the work of someone who at least at one time had legitimate, inside access to the company’s networks — perhaps a former employee or contractor.
“We’re on the doorstep of [confirming] who we believe is the culprit, and unfortunately that may have triggered this mass publication,” Biderman said. “I’ve got their profile right in front of me, all their work credentials. It was definitely a person here that was not an employee but certainly had touched our technical services.”
As if to support this theory, the message left behind by the attackers gives something of a shout out to ALM’s director of security.
“Our one apology is to Mark Steele (Director of Security),” the manifesto reads. “You did everything you could, but nothing you could have done could have stopped this.”
Several of the leaked internal documents indicate ALM was hyper aware of the risks of a data breach. In a Microsoft Excel document that apparently served as a questionnaire for employees about challenges and risks facing the company, employees were asked “In what area would you hate to see something go wrong?”
Trevor Stokes, ALM’s chief technology officer, put his worst fears on the table: “Security,” he wrote. “I would hate to see our systems hacked and/or the leak of personal information.”
In the wake of the AdultFriendFinder breach, many wondered whether AshleyMadison would be next. As the Wall Street Journal noted in a May 2015 brief titled “Risky Business for AshleyMadison.com,” the company had voiced plans for an initial public offering in London later this year with the hope of raising as much as $200 million.
“Given the breach at AdultFriendFinder, investors will have to think of hack attacks as a risk factor,” the WSJ wrote. “And given its business’s reliance on confidentiality, prospective AshleyMadison investors should hope it has sufficiently, er, girded its loins.”
Update, 8:58 a.m. ET: ALM has released the following statement about this attack:
“We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorized party to gain access to our systems. We immediately launched a thorough investigation utilizing leading forensics experts and other security professionals to determine the origin, nature, and scope of this incident.”
“We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information. The current business world has proven to be one in which no company’s online assets are safe from cyber-vandalism, with Avid Life Media being only the latest among many companies to have been attacked, despite investing in the latest privacy and security technologies.”
“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. As other companies have experienced, these security measures have unfortunately not prevented this attack to our system.”
“At this time, we have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points. We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act. Any and all parties responsible for this act of cyber–terrorism will be held responsible.”
“Avid Life Media has the utmost confidence in its business, and with the support of leading experts in IT security, including Joel Eriksson, CTO, Cycura, we will continue to be a leader in the services we provide. “I have worked with leading companies around the world to secure their businesses. I have no doubt, based on the work I and my company are doing, Avid Life Media will continue to be a strong, secure business,” Eriksson said.”
My first reaction? “HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.”
My second reaction was more somber: How can I in any fairness insist on online privacy and security for myself while at the same time opposing that same right for others?
To paraphrase Pastor Niemöller: “Then they came for the adulterers, and I did not speak out – because I was not an adulterer.”
How long, then, until the hackers come for me – and there will be no one left to speak for me?
I can’t wait to see the names when this gets posted….this’ll be fun!
ridiculous. complete grroup of idiots public same false “list” and people just believe. dumbs.
The #1 favourite thing of people is to be on the side of perceived righteousness against some minority. You can tell it’s in full force here because there’s no attempt at understanding *why* someone would use AM. It’s all just hyperbole. Replace “cheater” with “black” and 90% of the comments would fit right in at a 1910 KKK convention.
You choose to be a cheater, being black is not a choice. Your point is irrelevant.
It’s so straight forward, even a caveman can understand it 😛
Yes but the question is: are you sure everyone in the site is a cheater? I doubt that AM really verifies your marital status and only lets cheaters join in. I’d bet that at best this site is used as any other dating website.
Are you for real? The site was specifically created for married people to hook up with others. To address your doubts, YES, every person registered with Ashley Maddison is a cheater.
No, that is not correct. A guy looking for no-strings-attached sex would use AM because you can’t be safer from getting stuck in a relationship than getting your action from a married woman.
You’re right Joe. I am a single man, and my information is apparently on the chopping block. I’ve used AM to interact with both married and single women. It is definitely not just married people on the site.
No, many people on AM are not married.. Perhaps even a majority. I was on the site before I was married, and my data is being reveled as well And many others have open marriages and the spouses know and don’t mind -even encourage- their mates to list on the site. Cheating is sneaking around behind your partner’s back. And as for those who are, as you would say, cheating, you don’t know their backstories. Some have been abandoned by their spouses; some have loveless marriages; some have abusive or unengaged spouses and just need some comfort. Not everyone is even looking for sex. And who are you to judge them anyway -it’s none of your business what consenting adults do or with whom they do it, so get off your high horse.
+1. However, I do agree with the original poster’s statement about both sides believing they have a righteous cause when neither do. They deserve each other.
Corey I have a serious question for you- are you on drugs?
What in the world are you talking about? Cheaters are a “minority group”? Criticism of cheaters is equivalent to criticism of blacks? That’s the most absurd analogy.
Cheating is a conscious choice and is usually unethical. Not everyone on AM is a cheater, but it’s safe to say *most* people who use AM to look for sex with strangers, and have partners who are not aware they are doing this and would not approve if they were aware.
And are you sure everyone in the site is a cheater? Does AM really verify your marital status? I’d bet that at best this site is used as a dating site as any other dating website.
haha, look at this butt blasted perpetual victim. Next thing you are going to tell me is that ending the moral ambiguity of cheating is the same thing as ending slavery.
Thanks for the laugh.
Adultery is never justified. It it and remains grounds for spending eternity in hell.
Hell isn’t just reserved for cheaters. Marriage: “A fountain of misery, a Quality Absolutely Infernal,” is what Michael Burlingame wrote of Abraham Lincoln’s martial “bliss.” I’m just glad I’m single. If you’re happily married — rejoice! You won the lottery. You are in a tiny minority. The rest of the married saps live out their lives in quiet desperation.
If you’re a loser you deserve to be a loser.
Not for those of us who are not superstitious.
Cute insult. Ad Hominem argument showing you’re insecure much about your own personal beliefs?
Can you share what Jesus said about this?
I think your attitude is unchristian (writing as a humble pastafarian).
Didn’t he also say something about judging others?
Ha ha awesome. Sites like this should not be allowed, how disgusting. The people on it deserve to be exposed and divorced. Their spouses deserve better
Sounds like something a racist cheater would say.
I hope they do leak the information in full. I am sick of people thinking its ok to cheat. And for those of you that say you care about the innocent family members, then maybe you should think about how them not knowing would affect them. “Oh, they’ll be better off not knowing.” Name me any other situation where that would be true. A family can recover from audultry, but there can be no recovery until the behavior has ceased.
Hey there….so you judge without ever knowing anything? How would you like to be in a marriage where your husband no longer touches you, and hasn’t done so for years? Counseling, talks, attempts at seduction….and turned away cause he’s just not interested anymore…and he doesn’t see how it affects you. Doesn’t care. Can’t afford to divorce cause it take two salaries to pay the bills and just barely making it. So do you live like a nun and never know what it’s like to feel, even if just for an hour or two, what it’s like to be touched and held and kissed and made to feel desired? Didn’t get married to be alone. Can’t get out cause of finances. So it’s the next step. And my husband is fully aware of what I’m doing and doesn’t care. Its the best thing I ever did for myself. So judge all you want. But you don’t know what other people are going through.
If you’re husband’s aware and is OK with it (as in, sleeping with other people isn’t considered outside of the bounds of acceptable behavior for your relationship), then it’s not cheating, it’s an open relationship. Cheating is going outside of the agreed boundaries of the relationship.
Ashley Madison promotes illicitly cheating – the whole idea that their marketing presents is that you hide such behavior from your spouse, because it’s outside of the agreed boundaries of your relationship. That marketing falls over when they have breaches like this, of course.
So divorce him without taking any of his money and if kids are involved, don’t be greedy and stupid. Actually divorce amicably and move on with life.
Won’t you please think of the (possible) children? Or love that still might exist? Nope. Divorce. Common sense yes. Bad advice as well.
Children can and will be happier in a single parent home than in a home where mom and dad have no love between them.
You sound too interested in keeping up a charade.
If you don’t love him and obviously have no respect for him or yourself why dont you walk away ?
If what you wrote is true about counselling etc then it is OVER! Move on.
I wonder if you would feel the same if you’re husband decided to see someone else more suited.
Probably be fine with it?
Yah right!!!
she’s not thinking of the children, because they would be able to weigh in with an opinion and it’d be a completely different set of criteria for the decision-making. does anyone here honestly think a child would simply say, “yeah mom, go ahead and lie to dad so i can have two parents off in la-la land while i grow up. sounds like the best arrangement.” i think kids have more courage and wisdom than that: they’d want you to work it out, even if it ends in (amicable) divorce. the financial stuff is secondary and a thin veil to obscure the selfish motivations. the sad thing is, this person might actually be able to better take care of her needs and her children’s needs through divorce.
That’s a difficult situation Cheater, and you’re right, judging people without knowing them is unwise. That being said, if your husband knows about it and doesn’t care, than you’re not actively deceiving him, in the “cheating” sense. It sounds like you have more of an open relationship at this point, which is absolutely fine when it’s agreed on by both parties.
It’s pretty obvious that Jay’s comment is about husbands and wives who believe they are in a monogamous, sexually healthy relationship with a fully committed spouse who loves them, only to get their world shattered later on when they find out everything about their marriage is a lie.
Sorry bhtooefr, didn’t mean to ape your comment. Got sidetracked and didn’t see yours before I submitted mine. Looks like we had the same idea.
Thanks bhtooefr. Well said. I was just gonna call some bs on that.
Cheater, it sounds like you did eventually agree to this open relationship. If not, I’m sorry he made you feel that way. I was married for years while my spouse cheated the entire time. I always found a reason not to leave, be it money, health, kids, whatever. I only speak for myself when I say I’m a lot better off now than when I was married to someone who cheated. Oh and I know what it feels like to go through ” Counseling, talks, attempts at seduction….and turned away cause he’s just not interested anymore…”
So your husband knows about it, does not care, and its still cheating?
Jesusland’s righteous out in full force today! I can imagine them poring over the inevitable data dump (while watching their porn and/or replacing the batteries in their dildos…)
Cheers to you for making it work! It’s a hard thing to do.
You Ma’am are the reason in which i am never getting married. Because people feel as if intimacy is an actual “Need” in a relationship. this site should be named “fucksomoneelsethatisntyourspouce.com” cause that’s all its doing here. and that’s really degrading, as are you as a person.
I’m pretty sure that’s NOT the reason you’re never getting married.
I suspect their are many and much more complicated reasons you will ever marry.
Ignore the self righteous busy bodies, they don’t have lives. No one walks in your shoes except you.
Do you have a picture of yourself ‘cheater’?
And uhhh, doin’ anything tomorrow night?
You assume that every user on that site was a cheater. Not so. There are/were people who were hotwives, bulls, couples with hall passes, swingers and so on, i.e. people who weren’t cheating but acting either as singles or with their partner’s knowledge and permission.
Problem is many of these people don’t want their private lives made public because a lot of people still aren’t comfortable with people who participate in open relationships or alternative lifestyles.
If all the data is dumped publicly, those people who weren’t cheating but were engaging in open, consensual activities and alternative relationships are at risk with respect to their jobs, their families and friends, and others who may judge them unfairly even though they did nothing wrong.
Finally. Someone with some common sense who realizes that there are persons besides “adulterers” who will be extorted and vilified wrongly.
Exactly!
What would someone who is not cheating need a site like Ashley Madison for?
I’m a single woman who has used the site. I’m a professional, and a single mother. I have no time for dating. My time is precious. I’ve tried all of the “traditional” sites with little success. The reason I used this site is because there WERE single men on the site, and because they were on this site, they tended to be more serious about pursuing a relationship than men on other sites. Ideal? No. But I’m sure I’m not the only member who used the site for this reason. Good for you that you don’t understand my position. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
I also am interested in seeing the list. It is amazing to me that people actually think their real names, credit card infor are safe online with a cheating spouse site. Hackers get info from Target & banks, so how dumb can someone be to actually use their real name, address & cc? It is pathetic how Ashley Madison markets their “services” Also, as the hackers point out, the holding company runs a prostitution site where vulnerable women are paid by men for “company” Yeah, right. In this case, I think the hackers did society a service. Anyone who knows how to get their hands on the list, let me know. Tip: I heard it can be found on a sub reddit.
Yep. They DECIDED as adults to have an affair. Why is this anyone’s business is beyond me. Over 21 and human allows anyone to enjoy life. Who cares if you are offended. If you think this is a crime against women, why are the most clients women? Mind your own business – pretty sure these hackers are hard core porn Wankersgalore themselves. The difference is AM clients want WITH someone….
These hackker(s) realize this is literally a extortion dream come true.Poor way to play this…also curious to see the names of cheaters.This will be better than the T.V show.
Anybody have an over/under on how many self righteous morality crusaders download malicious content or click on a suspect downloader because it gets labelled “ashleymadisondump” or the like? When pastor so-and-so get’s his porn stash dumped online because he was too busy lusting after a little schadenfreude to remain security conscious this unsavory event will come full circle.
Hi Ryan,
I hope you don’t take this personal, but you are a moron. Do you hate Christianity so much that you have to take this route to justify your OWN perversions? Even if what you say is true, they know they are wrong and live with their own guilt every day. On the other hand, you are probably proud of it, unless you get caught of course…
So chip, to clarify..
Moron that I may be, I actually don’t generally dislike Christianity at all. I’m having a bit of a difficult time following exactly what you think I said or whatever perversions I am attempting to justify, but let me be a little clearer, since you’re having a tough time following:
I am suggesting that a secondary effect of this situation, is that individuals who are interested in uncovering the dirty secrets of their neighbors, will be in too much of a rush to do their due diligence when clicking on supposed leaks, opening themselves up to potential infection, and the loss of their data or privacy.
I further note that there is an irony in the idea of being compromised while trying to read someone else’s leaked private information.
Finally, there is an implied warning that you might want to be careful of what you click on while you go track down those evildoers you are so up in arms about.
Where can we see the full manifesto and data that’s been leaked. You hear about these leaks all the time but the data never sees the light of day.
To the rest of you, because of the way you vote and the naive belief that NSA spying and big data are ok if “you have nothing to hide” you are reaping the side effects.
Until you take the threat posed by data mining of your private life seriously, you shouldn’t comment here. You’re just fools. Big data and the NSA surely know you’re cheating already.
I would be prepared to wager that if the data are analysed it will be found that membership per capita will be higher in red states.
Another great Q&A on Reddit:
Q: Why do The Impact Team hackers think that Full Delete is not being performed as advertised? It must be difficult to put yourself in the mindset of a criminal, but give it a shot.
A: I truly have no idea. In my opinion it was one of the best features the site introduced. But as I stated elsewhere, it only deletes the profile you request to be deleted. If you have ten other profiles using the same or different emails, they’ll stay still be there unless you tell us about them too. Most people with half a brain create one profile and know they only created one. If you and your buddies create 50 profiles at 3am one night when you’re wasted and expect us to be able to find and delete every single one, it’s not going to happen. Or it may take us a little while longer to find them all and remove them for you. I would say the hackers are people who created multiple profiles, paid to delete one of them and then got pissed because they have multiple other accounts they forgot about. There’s no criminal masterminding going on here.
What they said is that those people who wished to be deleted completely, still had their credit card trail there. So their profile may be gone, but they’ll still be outed. Even if “full delete” deleted the site content, they retained their PII.
Which would be required by law. (I believe the data must be kept for 7 years where I live).
Having never used the site, I am more outraged that they actually charge to have a profile removed. That’s a crazy business model and I can’t believe it actually worked for them ($1.7Mill that’s almost 90,000 people paying to have their accounts deleted).
Pretty sure that seven year requirement is only for specific kinds of information, like AM’s actual employee tax information. It doesn’t just automatically apply to any and all electronic information they might have. There is no over-all requirement to retain credit card information from payments. Honestly, no company should be keeping CC info at all, they should be using a third-party CC system as this info just makes them a bigger hack target.
want woman girls
Thank you all for the popcorn moment all. Morality has little to do with it, although I don’t condone cheating.
Putting all your personal information out there to BS websites like AM and facebook is pretty stupid imo. Of course I get called a kook from the very same people crying about this hack, and the fact that AM ignored its own EULA by not deleting data for a service it charges for. Websites like gawker have been releasing hacked information for years, and I don’t see the outrage anywhere. Look at Hulk Hogan. Go cry a river somewhere else.
Your opinion matches mine. Why people would put such information into these websites should have a Social-Psychology dissertation on it some place. You KNOW that eventually the information given will be available to somebody sooner or later.
Meh…why don’t they just use FaceBook like everyone else?
“I’m so outraged this website for cheaters didn’t do what they advertised, OMG, the nerve of them!” I mean, LOL, come on.
Oh, the irony!
Cheat on your spouse but be all upset when you are cheated on. Indeed, there is some comedy here.
40,000,000 people who apparently weren’t all that concerned with the “sanctity of marriage” or the bond between “one man and one woman.” I kinda hope the hackers will release the names too. There are going to be a bunch of hypocrites in THAT database.
hahahahhaah brilliant!!!
well done impact team.
It’s time the world wised up and started making cheating a criminal offence.
You can steal my car and face a stretch in jail. It wont affect me that much as i have insurance.
You can steal my wife and completely ruin my life and walk away scot free.
It’s high time people were brought to justice for ethical criminality.
Did you just advocate for the legislation of morals? I think you did under the misassumption of “ethics.”
Well, that would imply that you own your wife. I get what you are saying, though.
You can’t STEAL another person, Martin. It would be your wife’s choice to cheat. You don’t get to manage her free will, just as she doesn’t get to manage yours. You comparing her to your car like a piece of property is sad.
And if you think this site or all the other sites were gone tomorrow and she wouldn’t still cheat if she really wanted to, you’re nuts. Anyone can find a way whenever they want, and it’s pretty easy.
it’s disturbing that you compare cheating with theft with the phrase, “steal my wife.” She’s not your property.
Cheating is unethical because it requires dishonesty, but it’s not theft. Your wife is not your property, and some man did not “steal” her from you like a weasel takes an egg out of a nest.
I wouldn’t be too keen on continuing a relationship where someone thought of me as property, either…
Maybe they should be stoned to death? While we are at it, we should publicly whip anyone who swears and chop the hands off thief’s…
I put it to you that someone else cannot STEAL your wife from you. She chose to leave you because you didn’t do enough to keep her or you were not right for each other from the beginning.
Or, maybe you should have paid more attention to WHO you married in the first place, did your job vetting your partner better, and paid enough attention to them during the relationship. These sites don’t turn people into cheaters…
Indeed, because your wife is property. There used to be a law against what was called “criminal conversation” in some countries, which amounted to making luring your wife away illegal, very much in the sense of taking your property.
Nowadays we recognise that women have minds of their own.
Perhaps we should recognise a new kind of open marriage: one in which people promise to share all their passwords.
The self righteous comments are unbelievable, when did everyone decide to become civilian sex police? I’m on that site, however with the full “blessing” of my husband. We’re very open and welcome others to play. The women don’t have to pay and apparently only the men are targeted. I hope this doesn’t get ugly and no one gets hurt. Whoever would find joy in this as a bystander has no life!
I see your point. Society’s inacceptance of a plurality of ethical adult relationships means that many people (e.g,. polys) feel they need to stay in the closet and practice discretion.
What I honestly don’t understand is how, say, a cheater-based site is inherently more discrete and secure (protecting against the above-mentioned discrimination) than practicing discretion on, say, OK Cupid?
It sounds like an interesting way in which the less ethical peeps end up using other marginalized populations as human shields, so the sooner we break that as a society and become more accepting of non-traditional relationships, the sooner we can focus on ethical accountability.
On the positive front, some of the subtext of this “self-righteous” discussion sounds like a focus on the ethical aspects of cheating (e.g,. the dishonesty), which implies societal acceptance of ethical non-conforming (e.g., open/poly) relationships?
No one is against your open relationship. If you and your husband are OK with you sleeping around that is not CHEATING. Is it really that hard to understand? If you take someone property with their consent you don’t go to jail for stealing do you? This site does not cater for open relationship., their marketing is targeted on “Having an affair” a.k.a. CHEATING. They don’t market to “HAVE SEX WITH STRANGERS WITH YOU SPOUSES CONSENT” that would be entirely different.
To the person defending cheaters with a number of points that if you take an extra second to think, you could punch holes the size of a truck through. I’ll counter one point for you, “What if your in a marriage where your husband no longer touches you”? Well you could use your big boy or big girl words and have a conversation with him like an adult, instead of being a coward who runs behind their back. Or you know, you could always get a divorce which is not at all seen as taboo anymore. If there are kids involved, with two parent’s making stable money it can still work. Choosing to cheat is a deficiency in someone’s moral fiber and an act of cowardice in the face of a hard, but readily available decision of walking away which is more fair to the other party if you cared about them at all. In cheating you show that you do not in fact care as much as the other party as I’m sure you will kick and scream that you do. It is an act of selfishness that puts yourself above that person with whom you entered in an agreement with to be a partner. If you really respected that agreement in either marriage which is legally binding or while being someone’s girlfriend/boyfriend you would have the decency to talk to them and at least tell them it is over. By cheating you simply destroy trust, effect the other persons next relationship through the baggage you have created and lost someone who may have been a friend later.
Granda, my wife and I have an open marriage. She’s bisexual. I have my lovers, she has hers, and we have ours. It’s honest and we were in the open relationship when we were married. In fact, our wedding vows acknowledged it. Take away the jealousy and the possessiveness, and insert honesty and openness and you have genuine foundation for trust. No cheating, because there is no sneaking. No guilt. No shame. So I will not suffer your self-righteousness and prudity. I only pity those of you who apparently feel threatened by something that does not concern you and so are compelled to condemn what you have never experienced and apparently cannot understand. Please MYOB.
This is just sad… theres more important things for these people to be doing. It’s their personal choice, business and right to do whatever they want! A real douche would do something like this! Just leave it alone and let ADULTS be ADULTS! Again, their choice… NOT YOURS!
Unlike cheaters, who are fine upstanding human beings!
This is sad… don’t you have better things to do than to ruin peoples lives? They are ADULTS, they can do as they choose to do! Move on and just let these people be… sounds like someone (hacker) needs to get over themselves! Again, they’re ADULTS and its their CHOICE! You have zero place as to changing something that is broken to begin with! How sad… a true douche would do this!
Don’t cheat!
I feel sorry for the people reading this on their iPad now, with wifey sat next to them.
What about all these “affair” websites where the users only talk to sock puppets? Never heard of those? Imagine a fat guy sitting in front of a monitor faking to be a chesty cheerleader with a script laid out in front of him
I just <3 these hackers!
I have used a number of sites and know the frustration of the hackers in this case are having, with clear evidence of bias, false activities and false statements by Dating sites.
What we need here is some regulation and checking of these sites by a third party.
So that you can choose a reputable company with some confidence, regulations would include RSA key encryption of staff access.
I never liked the Cheat aspect of AM’s marketing as someone is going to get hurt in the long run but cyber dating is always going to present and it is better for those that are going to cheat, to cheat from home so they spend time with their families.
The number one lesson here is use a debit card or postal check so your real name is never used.
Expose them. Maybe they’ll learn that there’s no such thing as privacy on the internet. They will be doing a lot of husbands and wives a favor. To all those saying cheating is an adult choice. It’s not and that’s why it’s grounds for divorce and its not seen with good eyes, whether you’re Christian or nonchrisian. It shows poor ethic and integrity, not to mention spread of STDs. An adult choice is marriage and if it’s not working, fix it ot leave it instead of being a cheating coward.
If you search for ‘The Impact Team’ you get 10,000,000 stories talking about ‘The Impact Team’ but there is no site to go to.
Do they have an actual presence? It seems like they only exist in the articles written about them.
To the sensible people telling the holier-than-thou righteous types to think about absolutist statements – don’t bother. That kind of person doesn’t have the ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes – they’re entirely solipsistic.
Whenever I see one of the righteous “all cheating is wrong and people deserve to have their lives ruined because they signed up to a site” types posting, I am reminded of an old work colleague.
One day in conversation (I think we were talking about our boss cheating), she got very emotional and vehemently told me how awful cheating is and how I couldn’t possibly understand unless I’d been cheated on (she didn’t explicitly say she’d been cheated on, but that was the strong implication).
Fast forward about a year and she’s telling me about how she went to a different city on a work assignment for a couple of months and ended up “dating” a married guy and sneaking around in her hotel room away from his wife etc. She wasn’t even sheepish – it was all like “Oh, I like this guy so much, but he won’t leave his wife..blah blah”.
In other words, she’d realized life is not black and white when it happened *to her*.
Let’s see if some of the people commenting here find their husbands/wives in the data dump, and have to sit down and explain to their 12 year old what daddy/mommy did. I suspect they might change their minds about whether releasing all the data publicly was a good idea or not.
Do we have any idea when the breach/grab actually occurred? Was it before or after the Adult Friend Finder hack (which was in May I think).
These hackers are full of it. So these moral authorities are making a choice to not only post PII that could potentially destroy countless families but also subject them to credit card fraud, creating potential financial problems for EVERYONE in the family. It’s easy to sit behind the safety of your keyboard and make judgements but would you PERSONALLY walk up to the parties involved and verbally disclose this information? I highly doubt it. It’s not your place to decide the course of someone else’s future. If these guys do actually go thru with it they better really go into hiding because they will have a lot of angry people looking for them.
They ruined their own families, they made this choice and now they have to live with the choice they made.