it’s a website that promises
no-strings-attached fun life is short
have an affair but since July 2015 it’s
proven an almighty headache for its
users welcome to watchmojo.com in this
installment we’re counting down 10
crucial facts you should know about the
Ashley Madison hack number 10
what is Ashley Madison Ashley Madison is
a social networking site created for
people who are married or in a committed
relationship but are looking for
extramarital arrangements active since
2001 the Canada based company runs with
the slogan life is short have an affair
and it offers an until recently discrete
dating service as of August 2015 the
website had close to 40 million user
subscriptions and attracted more than
one hundred and twenty four million
visits per month according to web
analytics company similarweb Ashley
Madison is ranked number eighteen among
adult sites number nine who uses Ashley
Madison the majority of Ashley Madison
users are male
with around seven male members out of
ten because of the imbalance the company
has been known to use computer-generated
female profiles as a way of making the
site appear more attractive and
potentially effective to the male market
in terms of more specific patterns
research shows that the Canadian city of
Ottawa is especially receptive to the
site with around 189 thousand users
roughly one in five of its population
capital cities in general appear more
Ashley Madison friendly with Washington
DC Berlin Oslo and Athens all topping
their country’s respective per capita
statistics number 8 what is the Ashley
Madison data breach the hack occurred in
July 2015 and was staged by an until
then unheard of group known as the M
act team essentially the impact team got
beyond Ashley Madison’s online security
and gained access to the personal
information of its users past and
present the information included full
names email addresses home addresses
some credit card details and in some
instances information on a user’s sexual
preferences in all around 60 gigabytes
of data was successfully stolen by a
group that’s been described as having a
stronger technical skill set than most
number seven what did the hackers
threatened to do once they obtained the
information the hackers threatened to
publish it online
unless Ashley Madison and its partner
site established men were shut down when
this didn’t happen the impact team
followed through on their promise
publishing a list of customer names on
August 18 and August 20th 2015
the move was essentially an exercise in
publicly outing and shaming Ashley
Madison users on an international scale
placing especially high-profile
customers such as politicians or
celebrities in a particularly vulnerable
position for example Josh Duggar husband
and father of four from the popular TLC
TV show 19 Kids and Counting was found
to have two paid subscriptions on the
site
however the repercussions go further
still in some countries reports suggests
that among the leaked database there are
over a thousand dot s a Saudi Arabian
email addresses and in Saudi Arabia
adultery can be punishable by death
number six can you hide your information
one of the major talking points
surrounding the story is that within the
leaked information there were account
details of users who had previously paid
to have their accounts removed for any
Ashley Madison user who didn’t want to
remain a member of the site there was an
option to have your account and data
deleted for $19
however the hack exposed the reality
that deleted data is never actually
deleted at all despite the service
earning Ashley Madison a reported two
million dollars in 2014 alone in terms
of the individual it seems all but
impossible to hide your information at
present however it is possible to find
out whether you have or
have not been hacked there are plenty of
websites running such a service number
five can you find out if your partner
cheated third party companies designed
to determine whether any email address
has been compromised
saw their web traffic rapidly grow ever
since the first suggestions that Ashley
Madison had been hacked
however while services such as trust
off’ I and have I been pwned can offer
peace of mind to any potential victim
they can also provide any suspicious
spouse with a means of finding out
whether their partner has cheated or at
least whether their partner has
subscribed to a website marketed to
would-be cheaters however should an
email address be listed as belonging to
an Ashley Madison account it’s important
to remember that the site does not run
especially stringent membership
verification processes in theory it’s
relatively simple to set up an account
for a fake email address or for one that
doesn’t belong to you for example
included within the 2015 data dump is a
false email address designed to appear
as though it’s linked to former UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair number four has this
happened before
large-scale hacking and publishing such
as this has become relatively
commonplace within the modern world
on August 31st 2014 the celeb gate Storm
of Apple’s iCloud services received
massive media attention the obtaining
and publication of over 500 personal
photographs many of which contained
nudity of major celebrities and
personalities was criticized then as a
huge invasion of privacy eventually
there were two more batch releases of
private photos and videos of celebrities
for many commentators the Ashley Madison
breach falls within a similar category
number three has this happened before
part two there are recent instances that
relate even closer to the impact team’s
actions however Adult Friend Finder is
another adult social networking website
on which users can communicate and
arrange sexual encounters although there
is less of a direct focus on committed
couples and the idea of adultery in May
2015 the site security was breached and
over 3.5 million account details were
stolen
a smaller scale attack given the site’s
64 million strong membership the effects
upon victims are entirely similar in the
best case scenario embarrassment
worst case identity theft credit card
fraud and potential blackmail number two
how has a Schliemann Essen responded
avid life media the company that runs
Ashley Madison has staggered its own
response to the hack in tune with
development and has sought legal action
against those behind it despite the
difficulty in actually identifying them
initially the Ashley Madison chief
executive indicated that they believed
they were on the cusp of catching the
hacker suggesting that the breach was an
inside job quote I’ve got their profile
right in front of me said no Biederman
quote it was definitely a person here
that was not an employee but certainly
had touched our technical services
however efforts to locate any individual
by mid August 2015 had yielded little
with subsequent Ashley Madison
statements serving more as a reassurance
that the company was doing all within
their power to resolve the issue quote
we immediately launched a full
investigation began one such statement
quote utilizing independent forensic
experts and other security professionals
quote our investigation is still ongoing
it continued quote and we are
simultaneously cooperating fully with
law enforcement investigations number
one could this hack ruin the company
financially this could prove extremely
costly for Ashley Madison as of mid
August 2015 two Canadian law firms had
launched a class-action lawsuit against
the company to the tune of five hundred
and seventy eight million dollars on
August 28th 2015
Noel Peterman resigned from his position
as chief executive officer with the
company statement noting that the senior
management executive team will take over
while the company looks to find a new
CEO regardless the company will likely
be hardest hit in terms of its
reputation the hack will undoubtedly
result in the majority of members losing
faith in the service and the majority of
those previously thinking about signing
up deciding not to
so in the weeks following the hack two
suicides occurred though a potential
link had yet to be confirmed and
multiple extortion attempts on Ashley
Madison users had been reported
furthermore the revelations could also
have a negative impact for other morally
questionable adult websites now that the
risks are known whether you see the
impact team as especially effective
hacktivists
or as some form of cyber terrorists the
group behind the breach seems to sum up
the situation best upon first publishing
the stolen data they signed with the
message quote toobad for ALM you
promised secrecy but didn’t deliver did
these facts surprise you to vote for
which news story is covered next
head over to watchmojo.com slash suggest
and be sure to hit that subscribe button
for more newsworthy top 10s published
every week life is short have an affair
that is the most morally dubious slogan
since Toyota’s short-lived feeling bored
it’s someone with a car
no-strings-attached fun life is short
have an affair but since July 2015 it’s
proven an almighty headache for its
users welcome to watchmojo.com in this
installment we’re counting down 10
crucial facts you should know about the
Ashley Madison hack number 10
what is Ashley Madison Ashley Madison is
a social networking site created for
people who are married or in a committed
relationship but are looking for
extramarital arrangements active since
2001 the Canada based company runs with
the slogan life is short have an affair
and it offers an until recently discrete
dating service as of August 2015 the
website had close to 40 million user
subscriptions and attracted more than
one hundred and twenty four million
visits per month according to web
analytics company similarweb Ashley
Madison is ranked number eighteen among
adult sites number nine who uses Ashley
Madison the majority of Ashley Madison
users are male
with around seven male members out of
ten because of the imbalance the company
has been known to use computer-generated
female profiles as a way of making the
site appear more attractive and
potentially effective to the male market
in terms of more specific patterns
research shows that the Canadian city of
Ottawa is especially receptive to the
site with around 189 thousand users
roughly one in five of its population
capital cities in general appear more
Ashley Madison friendly with Washington
DC Berlin Oslo and Athens all topping
their country’s respective per capita
statistics number 8 what is the Ashley
Madison data breach the hack occurred in
July 2015 and was staged by an until
then unheard of group known as the M
act team essentially the impact team got
beyond Ashley Madison’s online security
and gained access to the personal
information of its users past and
present the information included full
names email addresses home addresses
some credit card details and in some
instances information on a user’s sexual
preferences in all around 60 gigabytes
of data was successfully stolen by a
group that’s been described as having a
stronger technical skill set than most
number seven what did the hackers
threatened to do once they obtained the
information the hackers threatened to
publish it online
unless Ashley Madison and its partner
site established men were shut down when
this didn’t happen the impact team
followed through on their promise
publishing a list of customer names on
August 18 and August 20th 2015
the move was essentially an exercise in
publicly outing and shaming Ashley
Madison users on an international scale
placing especially high-profile
customers such as politicians or
celebrities in a particularly vulnerable
position for example Josh Duggar husband
and father of four from the popular TLC
TV show 19 Kids and Counting was found
to have two paid subscriptions on the
site
however the repercussions go further
still in some countries reports suggests
that among the leaked database there are
over a thousand dot s a Saudi Arabian
email addresses and in Saudi Arabia
adultery can be punishable by death
number six can you hide your information
one of the major talking points
surrounding the story is that within the
leaked information there were account
details of users who had previously paid
to have their accounts removed for any
Ashley Madison user who didn’t want to
remain a member of the site there was an
option to have your account and data
deleted for $19
however the hack exposed the reality
that deleted data is never actually
deleted at all despite the service
earning Ashley Madison a reported two
million dollars in 2014 alone in terms
of the individual it seems all but
impossible to hide your information at
present however it is possible to find
out whether you have or
have not been hacked there are plenty of
websites running such a service number
five can you find out if your partner
cheated third party companies designed
to determine whether any email address
has been compromised
saw their web traffic rapidly grow ever
since the first suggestions that Ashley
Madison had been hacked
however while services such as trust
off’ I and have I been pwned can offer
peace of mind to any potential victim
they can also provide any suspicious
spouse with a means of finding out
whether their partner has cheated or at
least whether their partner has
subscribed to a website marketed to
would-be cheaters however should an
email address be listed as belonging to
an Ashley Madison account it’s important
to remember that the site does not run
especially stringent membership
verification processes in theory it’s
relatively simple to set up an account
for a fake email address or for one that
doesn’t belong to you for example
included within the 2015 data dump is a
false email address designed to appear
as though it’s linked to former UK Prime
Minister Tony Blair number four has this
happened before
large-scale hacking and publishing such
as this has become relatively
commonplace within the modern world
on August 31st 2014 the celeb gate Storm
of Apple’s iCloud services received
massive media attention the obtaining
and publication of over 500 personal
photographs many of which contained
nudity of major celebrities and
personalities was criticized then as a
huge invasion of privacy eventually
there were two more batch releases of
private photos and videos of celebrities
for many commentators the Ashley Madison
breach falls within a similar category
number three has this happened before
part two there are recent instances that
relate even closer to the impact team’s
actions however Adult Friend Finder is
another adult social networking website
on which users can communicate and
arrange sexual encounters although there
is less of a direct focus on committed
couples and the idea of adultery in May
2015 the site security was breached and
over 3.5 million account details were
stolen
a smaller scale attack given the site’s
64 million strong membership the effects
upon victims are entirely similar in the
best case scenario embarrassment
worst case identity theft credit card
fraud and potential blackmail number two
how has a Schliemann Essen responded
avid life media the company that runs
Ashley Madison has staggered its own
response to the hack in tune with
development and has sought legal action
against those behind it despite the
difficulty in actually identifying them
initially the Ashley Madison chief
executive indicated that they believed
they were on the cusp of catching the
hacker suggesting that the breach was an
inside job quote I’ve got their profile
right in front of me said no Biederman
quote it was definitely a person here
that was not an employee but certainly
had touched our technical services
however efforts to locate any individual
by mid August 2015 had yielded little
with subsequent Ashley Madison
statements serving more as a reassurance
that the company was doing all within
their power to resolve the issue quote
we immediately launched a full
investigation began one such statement
quote utilizing independent forensic
experts and other security professionals
quote our investigation is still ongoing
it continued quote and we are
simultaneously cooperating fully with
law enforcement investigations number
one could this hack ruin the company
financially this could prove extremely
costly for Ashley Madison as of mid
August 2015 two Canadian law firms had
launched a class-action lawsuit against
the company to the tune of five hundred
and seventy eight million dollars on
August 28th 2015
Noel Peterman resigned from his position
as chief executive officer with the
company statement noting that the senior
management executive team will take over
while the company looks to find a new
CEO regardless the company will likely
be hardest hit in terms of its
reputation the hack will undoubtedly
result in the majority of members losing
faith in the service and the majority of
those previously thinking about signing
up deciding not to
so in the weeks following the hack two
suicides occurred though a potential
link had yet to be confirmed and
multiple extortion attempts on Ashley
Madison users had been reported
furthermore the revelations could also
have a negative impact for other morally
questionable adult websites now that the
risks are known whether you see the
impact team as especially effective
hacktivists
or as some form of cyber terrorists the
group behind the breach seems to sum up
the situation best upon first publishing
the stolen data they signed with the
message quote toobad for ALM you
promised secrecy but didn’t deliver did
these facts surprise you to vote for
which news story is covered next
head over to watchmojo.com slash suggest
and be sure to hit that subscribe button
for more newsworthy top 10s published
every week life is short have an affair
that is the most morally dubious slogan
since Toyota’s short-lived feeling bored
it’s someone with a car
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