In July 2015, a very polite group of hackers called The Impact Team stole the data of over 30 million users from Ashley Madison, a website for cheating spouses, and threatened to dump it all over the dark web if the site wasn't shut down. The site stayed up, and the data went out. Learn about how hackers worldwide have used the data to blackmail users, the denials (and eventual resignations) of Ashley Madison executives, and the many clues, including the hackers' unusual level of politeness, that point to certain culprits.
Resources
- Pastebin notice of July 20: https://pastebin.com/ZGXmk8R9
- Krebs on Security report on breach: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/07/online-cheating-site-ashleymadison-hacked/
- Suicides attributed to Ashley Madison breach:
- https://money.cnn.com/2015/09/08/technology/ashley-madison-suicide/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34044506
- https://toronto.citynews.ca/2013/11/10/woman-hurt-typing-fake-profiles-for-dating-site-20m-suit-alleges/
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/08/ashleymadison-500k-bounty-for-hackers/
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/08/who-hacked-ashley-madison/
- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/08/was-the-ashley-madison-database-leaked/
- https://grahamcluley.com/ashley-madisons-leaked-database-available-download-read-this/
- https://grahamcluley.com/ashley-madison-fake/
- https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/the-strange-rise-and-sudden-fall-of-noel-biderman-the-former-ceo-of-ashley-madison/slidelist/48716152.cms
- https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/business-privacy/safeguards-and-breaches/privacy-breaches/respond-to-a-privacy-breach-at-your-business/gd_pb_201810/
- https://www.wired.com/2015/08/happened-hackers-posted-stolen-ashley-madison-data/
- https://grahamcluley.com/ashley-madison-wives-receiving-blackmail-letters/
- https://grahamcluley.com/ashley-madison-slammed-with-1-6m-fine-for-data-breach/
- https://grahamcluley.com/ashley-madisons-leaked-database-available-download-read-this/
- https://digitalguardian.com/blog/timeline-
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