Cheating spouses website users have files posted online

Hackers say they have followed through on a threat to release stolen customer information from the cheating spouses website AshleyMadison.com, the Guardian reports.

The data was initially posted on to the so-called dark web according to reports, making it only accessible using a specialised browser. However, lists of email addresses appeared on other sites afterwards, but their authenticity could not immediately be confirmed.

A group calling itself Impact Team had leaked snippets of the compromised data in July and threatened to publish names and salacious details about clients unless Ashley Madison and EstablishedMen.com, another site owned by Toronto-based parent company Avid Life Media, were taken down.

According to tech website, Wired, some 9.7 gigabytes of data was posted and appeared to include member account and credit card details.

The website also published a statement issued by the hackers;

 “We have explained the fraud, deceit, and stupidity of ALM [Avid Life Media] and their members. Now everyone gets to see their data,” the statement reportedly reads.

Avid Life, which uses the slogan “Life is short. Have an affair”, condemned the hackers, saying they had appointed themselves as “the moral judge, juror and executioner seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all of society”.

“These are illegitimate acts that have real consequences for innocent citizens who are simply going about their daily lives,” said a company statement.

Avid Life said it had asked the FBI to investigate, as well as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and Toronto Police.