The summer of 2015 was a long hot summer for millions of people — 36 million, in fact. That’s the estimated number of users registered on AshleyMadison.com, a dating website for married people. The site’s motto? “Life Is Short. Have an Affair.”
A data breach with a moral claim
Those 36 million people were likely sweating bullets once news of the Ashley Madison hack surfaced in mid-July. The hackers — who called themselves “The Impact Team” — began dumping their stolen data on the Tor network in mid-August. The data release came with a statement explaining The Impact Team’s motive. Avid Life Media, then the parent company of Ashley Madison, promised a “full delete” feature. For a one-time payment of just $19, the company promised “removal of site usage history and personally identifiable information from the site.” The Impact Team called this a “complete lie,” saying that while the full delete option had generated $1.7 million in revenue for Avid Life Media in 2014, the associated payment data, including real name and address, hadn’t been deleted.
While the identity of The Impact Team is still publicly unknown, it may have been someone close to Ashley Madison’s operations. In an interview published on vice.com, an anonymous member of The Impact Team described the security protocols at Avid Life Media: “Bad. Nobody was watching. No security. Only thing was segmented network. You could use Pass1234 from the internet to VPN to root on all servers.”
The fallout and long-term impact
The hack and subsequent data release torpedoed plans for an Ashley Madison IPO. In December 2016, the Federal Trade Commission announced settlement details for the Ashley Madison hack, including a payment of $1.6 million. At the time, it was one of the largest data breaches.
For more on this hack, check out the 2024 Netflix documentary Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal. The site is still in business.
Did you enjoy this installation of SmarterMSP’s Tech Time Warp? Check out others here.
Photo: tete_escape / Shutterstock
