Hackers have struck again, and this time they could threaten millions of American marriages.
Ashley Madison is an online dating website that exists specifically to help married people cheat on their spouses with anonymity — their slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair.” — But that anonymity is in jeopardy after the company their customers’ data was stolen, the blog KrebsOnSecurity first reported.
A group of hackers called the “Impact Team” took credit for the hack and has said that if the Ashley Madison website is not taken down they will release the customers’ personal information, including names, addresses, emails, and their secret sexual fantasies.
Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media has acknowledged the hack and said they have since secured the site and been able to “close the unauthorized access points” and are trying to determine who is behind the hack.
Avid Life’s CEO Noel Biderman said he believes the hack was an inside job, not an employee of the company but someone who had previously worked with their system.
“We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information,” the company’s statement reads. “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.”
Ashley Madison boasts more than 37 million members, all of whom experts say are now potentially vulnerable to identity theft and blackmail. Avid Life Media marketed a “Full Delete” option for its customers, which promised to completely delete the customer’s information for $19.
But the hackers told Krebs that the “Full Delete” option is a scam.
“Full Delete netted ALM $1.7 million in revenue in 2014. It’s also a complete lie,” the hacking group said in a statement to Krebs. “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.”
Avid Life Media said they did their best and ya know, it happens.
“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,” the company said in a statement. “As other companies have experienced, these security measures have unfortunately not prevented this attack to our system.”
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