Ashley Madison hacked, personal information leaked

[baumerman77]

still think that governments shouldn´t interfere on this. it´s a personal decision. if you can marry and mantain 5 women so that´s your problem...

"traditional western..."

you mean Christian tradition?

Presumably that's what was meant by that ruling, considering western norms derived from the Christian tradition.

I largely agree. It seems by interfering the government is restricting liberties more than safeguarding them.

[TOMapleLaughs]

As usual, this is less about ethics and more about money. Some former employee got disgruntled, probably blaming a (her) failed marriage on the site, and decided to bury them.

Now they're facing a huge class action law suit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34032760

Ashley Madison is facing a C$760m ($576m; £367m) class-action lawsuit after customer data from the infidelity dating website was leaked onto the so-called dark web last week.

Two Canadian firms - Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP - are bringing the action against Avid Dating Life and Avid Media, which run the site.

They said they were acting on behalf on "all Canadians" affected by the breach.

Hackers, known as the Impact Team, stole the data last month.

It included users' names, email and home addresses, and message history. The hackers threatened at the time to reveal the information unless the site was taken down.

"Numerous former users of AshleyMadison.com have approached the law firms to inquire about their privacy rights under Canadian law," the two firms said in a statement.

"They are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users' information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed."

One plaintiff is named as Eliot Shore, a disabled widower from Ottawa. According to the statement, he joined the website for a short time after losing his wife, but never met up with anyone in person.

Ashley Madison says it operates in more than 50 countries and has 37 million users, more than a million of whom live in the UK.

It promotes its service with the tagline, "Life is short, have an affair".

This is an opportunity for some other 'have an affair' site to pop up, or perhaps another dating site to scoop up the traffic. 37 million users and hundreds of dollars per is A LOT of revenue.

However, many other dating sites have been breached in the past, including Gleeden, an old 'affair' site. These sites are often targeted by hackers for spamming purposes. The other purpose is blackmail, of course. This data can be sold to the highest bidder on the dark web.

One possibly unintended consequence is that this hack has possibly led to suicides.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ashley-madison-hack-2-unconfirmed-suicides-linked-to-breach-toronto-police-say-1.3201432

Toronto police warned hackers of the Ashley Madison infidelity website that their actions "won't be tolerated," and said there are two unconfirmed suicides linked to the breach.

He didn't give any further details where the unconfirmed suicide cases may have occurred. Evans also said there have been reports of hate crimes connected to the hack.

Avid Life Media, which runs the infidelity website, has offered $500,000 to anyone who contributes information that leads to an arrest in the case.

Police at the news conference also warned people whose data may have been compromised about a number of scams targeting them in the wake of the breach.

Evans said a number of sites are extorting Ashley Madison clients, and offering to erase their names for a fee, something he says cannot be done.

"Nobody is going to be able to erase that information," Evans said, adding clicking on many of those links exposes your computer to malware and viruses.

Police also asked the tech community, as well as "white hat hackers" who don't engage in crime, to come forward if they have any information about the Impact Team or suggestion of avenues to investigate.

The website, which claims to have over 39 million users, is for people looking to arrange extramarital affairs, and run by Avid Life Media.

Some of that data was dumped online last week

A group calling itself Impact Team has claimed responsibility for the hack. Several sources have confirmed that the data is authentic.

The RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, Toronto police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation are involved in investigating the breach, according to Avid Life Media.

The Toronto-based company has not revealed how much data was stolen by hackers.

The whole thing is just ugly. And 'moral' or not, the hackers are obviously criminals and they should be thrown in jail.

[aeromotacanucks]

Presumably that's what was meant by that ruling, considering western norms derived from the Christian tradition.

I largely agree. It seems by interfering the government is restricting liberties more than safeguarding them.

Tradition of what? tring to impose people your religion by telling your personal liberty?

althought O consider cheating very wrong I also think that if a man wish have more than one wife (or vice versa) it´s not the government´s problem.

think how many things would be solved if polygamy was allowed? no more "secret families" since you can openly marry a second wife and the 2 families live together...

it´s done in middle east countries (Muslim countries) and seems to work very well.

"Tradition" in many cases are a good thing. but sometimes we must open our minds in order to understand that the monogamy and the "Christian tradition" applies only for people who actually believes in the Catholic Christian tradition...

and guess what? the people who cheat most are preciselly the ones who are "Traditionally Christians" and "followers of the God´s wish"

[Lancaster]

If we accept the promotion of this type of behaviour, as an open site does, then we send a message that it's ok. Some of us find the deterioration of society, as a whole needs the reins pulled in a bit. That the free for all cess pool could use a little reeling in.

If people want to cheat discretely, it isn't my business...what goes on behind closed doors is just that. But excuse me if I feel nothing but pleasure in seeing those who actually solicit for it squirm as they are exposed. Should have been discreet/used your cell phone/pseudo email account then? They didn't.

So if it's "ok" to participate then they become fair game. They've given control elsewhere. Sought out a third party and now it's everyone's business. Be careful who/what you trust, untrustworthy ones. Ironic.

Again - sleazeballs who want to explore other avenues are free to do so...if it involves hurting others then I hope they get some of that back, tenfold.

Some couples have arrangements and, in those cases, go for it. It is no one's business. But if some slimeball wants to find some on the side and needs assistance in that (and someone will profit from it in the end), then he/she isn't trying hard enough. In at least one of those "relationships".

I honestly don't care...but think it's awesome that people who thought they were so sneaky just learned a valuable lesson.

I'm a bit of a prude when it comes to commitment and "till death do us part" stuff. I bought into it and tried, very hard, to make that work. It is difficult to be in a relationship, especially during times when it isn't giving us what we want. But what ever happened to either communicating and working at it or packing it in before going elsewhere? And everyone will have their own ideas about that but I'm just not sure they should be marketable.

Who is to say what's okay and not okay? I don't believe cheating is ok, but I've repeated often, it's not my business what Mr. Joe Cheating and what Mrs. Jane Cheater does, as they don't relate to me.

When it comes to morality, you may feel that society shouldn't tolerate certain things... which is a fine idea, but where do you draw the line? Should women only be allowed outside with a male family member to make sure she isn't cheating? Should the guy be tracked via GPS to make sure he doesn't deviate outside of work and home?

Plus... what is the definition of cheating everyone can agree with? Physical intimacy, emotional intimacy.... or both? Sex without any emotional attachment... is that ok or not ok? What about just flirting and close body contact? What about just flirtation via texting, messaging? What if you just have an affinity with someone you're attracted to?

Morality is subjective... thus forcing people to be moral is nonsensical.

[Mr. Ambien]

Who is to say what's okay and not okay? I don't believe cheating is ok, but I've repeated often, it's not my business what Mr. Joe Cheating and what Mrs. Jane Cheater does, as they don't relate to me.

When it comes to morality, you may feel that society shouldn't tolerate certain things... which is a fine idea, but where do you draw the line? Should women only be allowed outside with a male family member to make sure she isn't cheating? Should the guy be tracked via GPS to make sure he doesn't deviate outside of work and home?

Plus... what is the definition of cheating everyone can agree with? Physical intimacy, emotional intimacy.... or both? Sex without any emotional attachment... is that ok or not ok? What about just flirting and close body contact? What about just flirtation via texting, messaging? What if you just have an affinity with someone you're attracted to?

Morality is subjective... thus forcing people to be moral is nonsensical.

This site is entirely about sex, and it's about hiding it from your partner.

I'm all for whatever relationship people want to have, but if you have to hide it from a partner at all, well, that kinda removes the ambiguity of whether or not it's cheating, even by some of the loosest monogamous standards.

The moral lesson is, get permission from your partner to bang other people, be in a polygamous relationship, or just be single and bang a bunch of partners. Someone having their information leaked on a website that's about secretly cheating on your spouse isn't exactly a likely candidate for empathy. So.. empathizing with the spouse who's being cheated on, I fully support the leak and subsequent witch hunt.

[TOMapleLaughs]

This site is entirely about sex, and it's about hiding it from your partner.

I'm all for whatever relationship people want to have, but if you have to hide it from a partner at all, well, that kinda removes the ambiguity of whether or not it's cheating, even by some of the loosest monogamous standards.

The moral lesson is, get permission from your partner to bang other people, be in a polygamous relationship, or just be single and bang a bunch of partners. Someone having their information leaked on a website that's about secretly cheating on your spouse isn't exactly a likely candidate for empathy. So.. empathizing with the spouse who's being cheated on, I fully support the leak and subsequent witch hunt.

Who are you or we or the hackers to put these morals on people though?

And what's the morality behind breaking up families and causing suicides anyway? "That's not on us," the hackers could say. Funny, since that's what Ashley Madison has been saying about any potential fallout from using their site too.

It's all a big pile of hypocrisy by everyone, and at the end of the day it's really nobody's freakin' business.

[Mr. Ambien]

Who are you or we or the hackers to put these morals on people though?

And what's the morality behind breaking up families and causing suicides anyway? "That's not on us," the hackers could say. Funny, since that's what Ashley Madison has been saying about any potential fallout from using their site too.

It's all a big pile of hypocrisy by everyone, and at the end of the day it's really nobody's freakin' business.

It's strange that someone would be cheating on their spouse, which is, itself, an act of breaking up a family, and you'd be worried about the results of leaking that information?

If it was my wife who was on that site I sure as hell would want to know. And it would be hard to blame the Impact Team for ruining our relationship when it would be the wife's act that ruined it.

And you should know by now, nothing on the internet is secret.

[TOMapleLaughs]

It's strange that someone would be cheating on their spouse, which is, itself, an act of breaking up a family, and you'd be worried about the results of leaking that information?

If it was my wife who was on that site I sure as hell would want to know. And it would be hard to blame the Impact Team for ruining our relationship when it would be the wife's act that ruined it.

And you should know by now, nothing on the internet is secret.

Mmm, this is where you're wrong. Cheating is not going to break up a family. Getting caught is. So the act of releasing the information leading to these people being caught is what's breaking up families and leading to suicides.

The morality aspect to the leak is horsecrap. Cheating is, was and will continue to be around. To think otherwise is naive, but even if you believe in a high moral code or whatever, It's still not really up to anyone in particular to be a judge on such private matters. It's none of your freakin' business.

[Mr. Ambien]

Mmm, this is where you're wrong. Cheating is not going to break up a family. Getting caught is. So the act of releasing the information leading to these people being caught is what's breaking up families and leading to suicides.

The morality aspect to the leak is horsecrap. Cheating is, was and will continue to be around. To think otherwise is naive, but even if you believe in a high moral code or whatever, It's still not really up to anyone in particular to be a judge on such private matters. It's none of your freakin' business.

Who says cheating will cease because of this leak? No one. Please formulate a rebuttal to an actual argument being made when telling someone they're wrong.

On the other hand, like I said, empathy is with the person being cheated on.. obviously your concern is the cheater getting away with it, cuz "nunya". And, again.. privacy on the internet, who in 2015 really thinks this is the case? Let's ask Jennifer Lawrence. Anyone putting stuff on the internet and expecting it to stay private is naive.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Who says cheating will cease because of this leak? No one. Please formulate a rebuttal to an actual argument being made when telling someone they're wrong.

On the other hand, like I said, empathy is with the person being cheated on.. obviously your concern is the cheater getting away with it, cuz "nunya". And, again.. privacy on the internet, who in 2015 really thinks this is the case? Let's ask Jennifer Lawrence. Anyone putting stuff on the internet and expecting it to stay private is naive.

You had argued that cheating breaks up families. Wrong. Getting caught does.

Otherwise, it doesn't really matter what commentary was made on moral code, ethics, etc. and that's the point. It's not up to us to judge. It's up to the ones being affected when the cheater is caught of course.

Privacy on the internet is an issue unrelated to the morality argument. However, AM is being faced by a class-action suit because they promised privacy and failed to deliver. Looks like people still want privacy on the internet.

[Mr. Ambien]

You had argued that cheating breaks up families. Wrong. Getting caught does.

Otherwise, it doesn't really matter what commentary was made on moral code, ethics, etc. and that's the point. It's not up to us to judge. It's up to the ones being affected when the cheater is caught of course.

Privacy on the internet is an issue unrelated to the morality argument. However, AM is being faced by a class-action suit because they promised privacy and failed to deliver. Looks like people still want privacy on the internet.

Not really, in legalese, it's about AM not fulfilling their obligations in writing.

And your argument holds no water whatsoever. If a friend were to see a partner entering a hotel with a person they're cheating with and tell the spouse, by your rationale, they have no business doing so. The relationship is only between the two people right? Wrong. Anyone who has a moral compass does not empathize with liars and sleazeballs, they snitch on the person cheating. So I fully support this witch hunt that ensues because of it. If the person commits suicide because they'd rather die than face consequences for their actions, oh well for them. The freedom to make choices =/= freedom from responsibility.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Not really, in legalese, it's about AM not fulfilling their obligations in writing.

And your argument holds no water whatsoever. If a friend were to see a partner entering a hotel with a person they're cheating with and tell the spouse, by your rationale, they have no business doing so. The relationship is only between the two people right? Wrong. Anyone who has a moral compass does not empathize with liars and sleazeballs, they snitch on the person cheating. So I fully support this witch hunt that ensues because of it. If the person commits suicide because they'd rather die than be outed, oh well for them.

Okay, let's leave the legalese to the experts. ie. Wetcoaster. Because cdc needs some text wallpaper.

You can support the actions taken by the hackers or not. It doesn't matter. But none of us or the hackers have the right to judge these people. Esp. the hackers, because of the hypocrisy involved. They're on the moral right, but are in fact committing criminal acts at the same time, and their actions have led to families being broken and people committing suicide? Sorry, but i'm not buying it. They're actually far worse than the cheaters themselves.

[NucksPatsFan]

2 reported suicides because the cheater's were exposed. Lol.

I mean, sad and all that they took their lives, but come on, you cheat you get caught. At least have the balls to end it before you wanna go dip your stick elsewhere.

Would've been a lot cheaper to just hire an escort, when comparing her price to the price of taking your life.

[NucksCelts]

It might be perceived as "bad" by most people but not all. Having an affair is not illegal, hacking a company and leaking personal records certainly is. But that is not my main point; rule of law is the cornerstone of a democratic society anyone trying to subvert that tenet, regardless if it is for a "moral" reason, should be prosecuted.

That's what I said, if you break a law, and get caught, get punished, I am not against that. Just because something isn't illegal it doesn't make it okay. That's like the argument that pot is bad cause it's illegal, and opiates are good cause they are legal. If you don't think cheating is bad, that's fine, but how do you think the person you committed to feels about it? It's totally narcissistic. What goes around comes around.

[Mr. Ambien]

Okay, let's leave the legalese to the experts. ie. Wetcoaster. Because cdc needs some text wallpaper.

You can support the actions taken by the hackers or not. It doesn't matter. But none of us or the hackers have the right to judge these people. Esp. the hackers, because of the hypocrisy involved. They're on the moral right, but are in fact committing criminal acts at the same time, and their actions have led to families being broken and people committing suicide? Sorry, but i'm not buying it. They're actually far worse than the cheaters themselves.

While I may be personally judging them, it's only for the sake of discussion -- that's what this topic is for. It's not up to me to be the real judge, that's up to their partner once they find the info publicly released. And I'm all for a partner finding out such information. Far more important a partner be informed of such sleazy acts than the ego of a cheater be saved because someone naively believes the internet is a haven of privacy for stupid acts. Better luck next time I guess.. except for those with such a big ego they'd rather die.

[TOMapleLaughs]

While I may be personally judging them, it's only for the sake of discussion -- that's what this topic is for. It's not up to me to be the real judge, that's up to their partner once they find the info publicly released. And I'm all for a partner finding out such information. Far more important a partner be informed of such sleazy acts than the ego of a cheater be saved because someone naively believes the internet is a haven of privacy for stupid acts. Better luck next time I guess.. except for those with such a big ego they'd rather die.

Hahaha, yeah it's good that they offed themselves, eh? :|

[Neversummer]

Another one caught. Funny how so many said that they signed up for an account and did not meet anyone ... what a ringing endorsement for the effectiveness of the stupid site ... lol.

[Mr. Ambien]

Another one caught. Funny how so many said that they signed up for an account and did not meet anyone ... what a ringing endorsement for the effectiveness of the stupid site ... lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilFuzKURvhk

Wonder if they allow nude profile images that can be viewed for free? If so might be worth it just to add to ye olde porn collection. Let the wife know I want to register there to see some nudes(hoping they only charge for communicating with people), never pay a cent.

[The Arrogant Worms]

Some people live a simple honest life and have nothing to expose. Two ways of avoiding this, be smart with your questionable behaviour, or just live with some ethics.

Who's ethics? Yours?

[NucksCelts]

Who's ethics? Yours?

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what general ethics and morals are. I don't care what you believe in, or what you do with your life. I do though believe in being honest, living by your word, and not purposely making choices you know are going to hurt others. I am not sure what else you need. If you're a cheater, you're a cheater. You may have a reason, and I guess I can understand that. But it's still scum behaviour.