UPDATED 05:14 EDT / JULY 20 2015

NEWS

Ashley Madison users to be screwed in new ways as site hacked, user details may be released

Online extramarital affairs hookup site Ashley Madison has been hacked and users may get screwed in entirely new ways, with the hackers appearing to have obtained details of some, if not all users of the site.

According to KrebsOnSecurity, large caches of data have been stolen from the infamous online cheating site owned by Avid Life Media, Inc. (ALM,) and a small sample has been posted online by an individual or group going by the name of “The Impact Team.”

Along with user data, The Impact Team claims to have completely compromised Ashley Madison’s financial records and other proprietary information.

KrebsOnSecurity contacted the company Sunday and Chief Executive Officer Noel Biderman confirmed the hack, and further went on to say that the company was “working diligently and feverishly” to take down ALM’s intellectual property.

“We’re not denying this happened,” Biderman is reported to have said. “Like us or not, this is still a criminal act.”

Several of Impact Team’s web links were reported to be no longer responding, indicating that the company was having some success in controlling the release of the data, but taking down information from these sorts of hacks is nearly always whack-a-mole; whack one site down and another dozen pop up.

Founded in 2001, Ashley Madison has been controversial wherever it has launched and subsequently advertised its services, as unlike other more conventional dating and hookup sites, Ashley Madison caters exclusively for extra-marital affairs.

Manifesto

The release so far is of sample data, which is said to include snippets of account data apparently sampled at random from among some 37 million users of the service; the hackers also leaked maps of internal company servers, employee network account information, company bank account data and salary information…along with a manifesto.

The Impact Team is claiming in its manifesto that ALM has been ripping customers off with a $19 service that is supposed to allow customers to completely delete their information from the site; the allegation being that the information is never deleted by the company.

“Full Delete netted ALM $1.7mm in revenue in 2014. It’s also a complete lie,” the hacking group wrote. “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.”

Ultimately the group wants Ashley Madison, and affiliated site Established Men, taken down, or else.

“Avid Life Media has been instructed to take Ashley Madison and Established Men offline permanently in all forms, or we will release all customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails. The other websites [in the ALM group] may stay online.”

The AshleyMadison hack follows the high-profile hack, and subsequent release of data from FriendFinder Networks Inc.’s popular adult dating and hookup website Adult FriendFinder back in May.

Suffice as to say it’s not a good time to be having an account on an adult dating website.

If you’re a customer of Ashley Madison, there’s no good news, and we refer back to our headline and opening paragraph: if you’ve been cheating on your partner and using this service, you’re about to get screwed in a whole new way.

Image credit: The Impact Team via KrebsOnSecurity.

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