The Canadian Internet company Avid Life Media, which operates several “hook up” and dating sites, has become the latest victim in data theft. The hacker has gained user information through their main site Ashley Madison, a social network for married people to organise an affair. Ashley Madison has, according to a company spokesperson, worldwide 37 million members.
Avid Life Media confirmed that there had been a breach in the security system. The vulnerability has since been closed however this will only protect signups after the breach… not great news for those 37 million members as the self titled “The Impact Team” claimed to have copied the entire database from Avid Life Media before any information was secured. The hacker group accused the group of having cheated (pun not intended) their customers with a false promise that for roughly $20 a members profile at Ashley Madison could be completely erased. Payment data remained still stored thus keeping record of a real name to the service.
The hackers demands are distinct, they are demanding that Ashley Madison and sister-site Established Men be taken down, otherwise they have threatened to publicly publish the customer profiles of every 37 millions members including the real name (from the Credit information) and photo from the attached profiles.
Not even an alias will save members.
For the time being the breached area has been cleared so no future attack can gain the same information. Corporate Chef Noel Biderman said he suspected an insider behind the attack. However, attacks are difficult to trace back when the attackers hide their digital fingerprints.
Image Source: Mawoo86, Flickr.