Private lives of 37 million Ashley Madison users at risk

MUMBAI, INDIA: More than 37 million adults  in the US and Canada who cheat on their spouses are at the risk of being exposed!

The adults, some of who comprise the rich and the famous have been logging into Ashley Madison, the website for cheating spouses to find a fling online.

A hacker group which calls itself The Impact Team has hacked into the database of Ashley Madison, and has threatened to expose the identities, customer records and profiles, including real names and customers secret sexual fantasies of all users, if the website is not pulled of permanently.

According to KrebsOnSecurity, which first reported the hack, the group claims to have invaded the databases of Avid Life Media (ALM), the company that owns Ashley Madison, gaining access to everything from user profiles and financial records to ALM salary information.

Kerbs reported that The Impact Team has already shared some ALM internal data online. It noted that The Impact Team posted a manifesto alongside the information, which said it had released Ashley Madison information in retaliation for the company's Full Delete service that promised to entirely remove member profiles for $19, which the group claims was a lie.

"Too bad for those men, they are cheating dirtbags and deserve no such discretion," Kerbs quoted the hacking group as saying. “Too bad for ALM, you promised secrecy but didn’t deliver ... 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."

Meanwhile, ALM confirmed an attempt by the hacking group to gain access to its systems.

In a statement issued yesterday, ALM said, "Using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), our team has now successfully removed the posts related to this incident as well as all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) about our users published online. Our team of forensics experts and security professionals, in addition to law enforcement, are continuing to investigate this incident and we will continue to provide updates as they become available.