The Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest, non-military federal user of Ashley Madison, a website which helps users cheat on their spouses, according to a database of site members posted by hackers Tuesday.
“Life is short,” the tagline of the Ashley Madison site reads. “Have an affair.”
Having an affair seems exactly what many VA employees intended. Exactly 104 emails belong to the “va.gov” domain. The second highest non-military department is the Federal Bureau of Prisons at 88 emails. Even the Department of Homeland Security turns up 45 emails.
The hackers, known as the Impact Team, posted the 9.7 gig database archive Tuesday, which shows the email addresses and personal details of approximately 37 million users.
In total, over 15,000 addresses belong to government users from the military and other top government agencies, though some are undoubtedly faked, as the site Ashley Madison did not require email verification. Some users, based on their email addresses, reportedly work for the United Nations and the Vatican.
While at first it was unclear whether the data was genuine, security researchers confirmed Wednesday that the data appears to pass initial inspection.
“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,” Impact Team stated in a document attached to the database dump. “Now everyone gets to see their data.”
“Find yourself in here? It was ALM that failed you and lied to you,” the team added. “Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it.”
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