The hackers behind the notorious hack of extra-marital affairs site Ashley Madison have been good to their word and have release nearly 10gb of user data covering tens of millions of members after the owners of the site failed to comply with demands that they cease trading.

According to reports the data released by the hackers includes names, addresses and phone numbers submitted by users of the site, along with credit card details that can confirm the identity of individual users even if they had otherwise used a false address with their site registration.

A sample of the data is said to include descriptions of what members were seeking from the site, such as “I’m looking for someone who isn’t happy at home or just bored and looking for some excitement,” and “I love it when I’m called and told I have 15 minutes to get to someplace where I’ll be greeted at the door with a surprise—maybe lingerie, nakedness. I like to ravish and be ravished … I like lots of foreplay and stamina, fun, discretion, oral, even willingness to experiment—*smile*”

“Leading up to this breach, Ashley Madison prided itself on airtight data security, a claim that seemed to have in part provoked the attackers to exploit the organization’s weakest point—insider security,” Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of security firm Dtex Systems Mohan Koo told SiliconANGLE by email.

“The source of this breach is largely believed to have been a third-party contractor with privileged access to the company’s systems. This is an organization whose entire business model depends on trust, anonymity and discretion. To use anything less than the most state-of-the-art insider threat detection capabilities is to flirt with disaster, and with its user base now exposed to the world, it’s hard to imagine the company will be able to survive much longer.”

Response

Ashley Madison owner Avid Life Media, Inc.responded to the release of the data with another vague statement similar to the one they made when the hack first became public knowledge, saying that “we are actively monitoring and investigating this situation to determine the validity of any information posted online and will continue to devote significant resources to this effort.”

“This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality,” the statement rages, before adding “it is an illegal action against the individual members of AshleyMadison.com, as well as any freethinking people who choose to engage in fully lawful online activities.”

Despite various media reports saying that the data is only available on the Darkweb, a search by SiliconANGLE has found that the download is being extensively distributed via BitTorrent on the regular internet, as well as being available by Onion proxy sites that allow Darkweb content to be viewed via the regular web.

A word of warning to anyone who may considering downloading the file: depending on where you live doing so may be an illegal act, so make sure you use a proxy or good VPN to cover your tracks if you absolutely want to download it.

Update: check here for details on how to search the Ashley Madison hacked/ leaked database online.

Image credit: The Impact Team/ screenshot