Hackers of infidelity site Ashley Madison have dumped the customer data including names, email and street addresses.
The dumped data reportedly contains information on how much the customers spent on the site and what they were expecting from potential partners.
The attack was carried out in July when hackers, who called themselves ‘Impact Team’, stole details of 37 million customers of Ashley Madison. They released a limited amount of data shortly after the hack was made public,threatening to release all of the data if the site was not shut down.
The hackers also wanted another similar site Established Men, both owned by Avid Life, to be shuttered, and now they claim that the details are available in the dark web as torrents.
Following the release of the data the group said in a post: "Avid Life Media has failed to take down Ashley Madison and Established Men. We have explained the fraud, deceit, and stupidity of ALM and their members. Now everyone gets to see their data.
"Find someone you know in here? Keep in mind the site is a scam with thousands of fake female profiles. See ashley madison fake profile lawsuit; 90-95% of actual users are male. Chances are your man signed up on the world’s biggest affair site, but never had one. He just tried to. If that distinction matters.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local police are investigating the theft.
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Avid Life Media released a statement saying: "This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality. It is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities.
"We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world."
George Anderson, director at cybersecurity firm Webroot, said: "This is definitely a unique cybercriminal act, one that I’m sure is very controversial amongst readers.
"But what’s more worrying is what they are not releasing and instead using as blackmail. I don’t think this is just a sophisticated ‘kiss ‘n tell’. There is a desire to hurt people here and that’s sick as well as being criminal. Whilst readers’ morals may conflict either seeing this group of hackers as good or bad guys, the fact remains that the Impact Team illegally obtained sensitive personal info.
"I’d imagine the fall-out is divorces, firings and blackmail – really personally malicious and upsetting stuff. There are no moral judgments on this except the immorality of hackers. So the ‘what now?’ is pretty nasty and the site users will probably be considering a class action for negligence.
"All companies, especially those dealing with proprietary information or customer data – must balance their security resources against their risk tolerance, and look at threat intelligence solutions that provide them with the greatest scope of protection.
For the consumers, when posting personal information online, despite the best security of you and the site, it is good to make sure you’re okay with this data becoming public record. If not, consider not posting it."
