Ashley Madison database stolen; hackers threaten to release personal information of cheating website's 37 million members

(Ashley Madison)

There is a lesson to be learned from the "Ashley Madison" hacking scandal — that cheating on your partner, in whatever form or medium, is a very bad idea. Especially since it is something that would always come back to haunt you.

The website has long generated controversy for enabling people to indulge in affairs because "life is too short." Now, "Ashley Madison" finds itself in a lurid situation as a group that had christened themselves, The Impact Team, were able to access its database and made away with the personal information of its 37 million members.

The company bills itself as the "world's leading married dating service for discreet encounters" and has attracted customers with its promise of confidentiality and security. A "Trusted Security Award" is even displayed prominently on its website. Now, the company is working double time to keep that promise.

According to Bryan Krebs, author of cybercrime blog, KrebsOnSecurity, The Impact Team has demanded for "Ashley Madison" and "Established Men," a sister site, to be shut down. In their manifesto, the hackers told the sites' parent company, Avid Life Media, that while shutting down the sites will cost the company, "non-compliance will cost you more" as they threatened to release "all customer records, including profiles with all the customers' secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails."

The Impact Team appears to have taken up the cudgels for consumers allegedly duped by "Ashley Madison's" "full delete" service that is said to completely erase a user's profile and information for a fee of $19.

The hackers claimed the service has netted "Ashley Madison" a tidy profit of $1.7 million in 2014 but says the company misled people since the member's credit card information, along with their real names and address, have not actually been deleted.

The company quickly addressed the issue and insisted that the "'paid-delete option offered by 'AshleyMadison.com' does in fact remove all information related to a member's profile and communications activity."

Avid Life Media also released a statement assuring members that it has "been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points" and that they have hired premiere IT security firm, Cycura, to investigate the security breach which they believe to have been instigated by someone who worked on "Ashley Madison's" technical system.

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