Love lives and reputations might be at risk after the release of customer data from infidelity Web site Ashley Madison, an unprecedented breach of privacy likely to rattle users’ attitudes toward the Internet.
Hackers dumped a big cache of data containing millions of e-mail addresses for US government officials, British civil servants and high-level executives at European and North America corporations on Tuesday, the latest cyberattack to raise concerns about Internet security and data protection.
The breach has been a big blow to Toronto-based assignation Web site firm Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison and has indefinitely postponed the adultery site’s initial public offering plans. However, many professions stand to benefit from the unfolding saga, from lawyers to therapists to cybersecurity firms.
Photo: AP
Prominent divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said the release is the best thing to happen to his profession since the seventh commandment forbade adultery in the Bible.
“I’ve never had anything like this before,” he said.
The data dump began to make good on the hackers’ threat last month to leak nude photos, sexual fantasies, real names and credit card information for as many as 37 million customers worldwide of Ashley Madison, which uses the slogan: “Life is short. Have an affair.”
The public embarrassment and emotional toll is likely to be enormous on unsuspecting people whose affairs might have been exposed online or even whose e-mails were used without their knowledge to sign up for the site.
“These poor people will be dealing with it in such a public way. It will be absolutely devastating,” said Michele Weiner Davis, a marriage therapist in Colorado and the author of Divorce Busting,adding that for the partners or spouses, the initial shock is likely turn to anger and then a deep feeling of hurt and betrayal.
“It’s no picnic for the unfaithful partner either,” she added.
Ashley Madison members would likely be best served by coming clean instead of waiting to see if their indiscretion is discovered, couples therapist Janet Hibbs said.
“Fall on your sword if you want to save your relationship,” she said. “Be prepared for them to ask a lot of questions, to not be defensive, to be compassionate.”
The data release could have severe consequences for US service members if found to be real. Several technology Web sites reported that more than 15,000 e-mail addresses were government and military ones.
Adultery, under certain criteria including the misuse of government time and resources, is a crime in the US armed forces and can lead to dishonorable discharge or imprisonment.
The hackers’ move to identify members of the marital cheating Web site appeared aimed at maximum damage to the company, which also runs Web sites such as Cougarlife.com and EstablishedMen.com, causing public embarrassment to its members, rather than financial gain.
“Find yourself in here?” said the group, which calls itself the Impact Team, in a statement alongside the data dump. “It was [Avid Life Media] that failed you and lied to you. Prosecute them and claim damages. Then move on with your life. Learn your lesson and make amends. Embarrassing now, but you’ll get over it.”
The lists were dumped on the so-called “dark Web,” which is only accessible using a specialized browser, but the database was being decrypted and made more widely available.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS