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Affair Site Hackers Threaten Release of All User Data Unless It Closes
heretic108 writes: According to KrebsOnSecurity, the infamous Ashley Madison affairs hookup website has been hacked by a group calling itself The Impact Team. This group is demanding the immediate and permanent shutdown of Ashley Madison, as well as similar sites Cougar Life and Established Man, owned by the same company: Avid Life Media. If the sites aren't shut down, the hackers are threatening to publicly release personal data for 37 million users. ALM has confirmed that a hack took place, and the hackers posted snippets of account data, as well as bank and salary information from the company itself.
The first thing that came to mind when I heard of this site is "This is a prime target for a hacking/blackmail scheme." The only surprise here is that it didn't happen sooner.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I get the feeling most of the profiles are fake anyway to pull in gullible males.
Never give in to blackmail.
Even better yet: Make every effort to be loyal to your spouse. If you fail, repent, hope for forgiveness, and try harder next time. Flee from all forms of temptation to do evil.
Easier said than done, to be sure.
Easier said than done, to be sure.
Pro Tip: Make the decision not to cheat before you begin any relationship. Once in a relationship, learn to not let your eyes wander.
I'm not happy this is happening, but I do hope that when things like this happen it makes people think critically about putting their private lives and their means of communication on other peoples servers (i.e. "the cloud").
It's folly to think that 37 million Facebook accounts, with all their private messages and chats, won't be the next.
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I think you are missing some serious possibilities for your over-analyse :)
What if the hackers in question simply do not take as nuanced of a view as you and are just throwing shit against the wall in order to justify their actions and stir up some publicity?
Perhaps, they were paid by a rival site or, are even an ex-employee?
> My guess would be that it is more about attacking the site operator than about the users specifically; it is pretty common for at least a person or two to end up suitably embittered during the course of business.
Well there are only so many glasses the powder can be in right? Sounds about right, personal grudge or even rival corp. Hell, I almost got involved with a contract to do some cleanup a while back because someone had found out his developer in India was abusing the company servers to run his own side business and fired him..... to which he responded by logging in to their hosting service and turning off machines; I could see a more vindictive person doing something like this.
People making twisted ethical arguments in order to justify what they want to do is not really anything new though so it is hard to rule out people who just wanted to pick a target to hack and are justifying a target that wont get a ton of sympathy. It can also be a little of A and a little of B.
The only thing really clear is they don't seem to have done this for money, though, who knows if they have another angle. Maybe they are contacting individuals who look like they might be able to afford to keep their info out of the dump? I bet you there are more than a few who would pay up.
But remember, we live in a world where people actually say things like "If I find he is sleeping with someone else I am going to beat her bloody"....like the third party is the one who did wrong. These are matters that evoke passions that, for many people, shine far brighter than ethics and reason.
Its so much easier when they just demand a ransom or something. Who benefits from the site shutdown? Even a rival site would likely see reputational fallout from this. In fact, the only parties I can think of who really would benefit here are divorce lawyers and the traditional dating sites who may see a slight bump, but its hard to see how they would see this as worth it when there is so much competition for desperation already.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Last time I checked, the tax situation for being married without having any dependents weren't especially better than for being single. First couple tax seasons after getting married we calculated our taxes both ways, and there wasn't really much of a difference.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I'd be really surprised if the actual hacker(s) really had any moral stance one way or another. My money would be be on just pure financial greed. They see AM and it's customers as a paycheck. They see AM as a source of money and are applying pressure directly on them to pay up and/or shut down. They also pressure subscribers to pressure AM from the other side to pay up to not reveal their information.
In the end I think it will be a loss for the hackers and customers. The hackers aren't going to get their money. AM takes a PR hit but doesn't really care because they already run a website for people with questionable ethics/morality. Customers info might get released, but for the 3 people that are actually real, married, and their partner doesn't already know, the shit might hit the fan. For everyone else, no one cares. And if you're a paying subscriber to a cheating website with your own real information, you're already a fucking idiot and get what you deserve for being a dumbass.
This, right here.
It's not that hard to keep yourself in check, gents. You either love your S/O or you do not. If you do, you will do your level best to remain faithful. ...besides, most of you schmucks are geeks - if you found someone that actually puts up with our little quirks and habits and loves our kind in spite of ourselves, why would you screw that up?
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
People are disgusting anyway. This is simply another in a long line of ways for people to hide communications that include alternate Internet e-mail addresses, alternate accounts through AOL, Compuserve, and Prodigy, PO Boxes, and if one goes back REALLY far, private couriers.
Ironic thing is, unless one's spouse or significant-other has really, REALLY let themselves go, the grass really isn't greener on the other side. The other person might appeal because they're new, but it's usually because they're new and the shiny luster hasn't been worn off through familiarity, and once that familiarity is well and truly established the new person isn't any better than the previous one, and could actually be worse.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Standard deduction, single: $6300
Standard deduction, married filing jointly: $12600
The only tax break you get is if your wife is a stay-at-home mom where you can double your tax deduction. Of course, then she runs the risk of losing all her credits etc from having no income.
You get those breaks as a single parent too.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Or perhaps learn to be in a relationship that is built on trust and not on preventing eyes from wandering. I've been married for 15 years and my wife has no problems with me letting my eyes wander because she knows at the end of the day, I still always wander home to her in our bed, and no one else's.
I know! I hate everything the website in question stands for and I find the idea of breaking the law to shut them down reprehensible. How to choose sides?
You apparently never played D&D. "Alignment" in D&D is actually a fairly ingenious way of looking at belief systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
This site was Lawful Evil.
The hackers were Chaotic Good. (well I guess we don't really know do we?)
You're apparently Lawful Good, so you're conflicted. The site breaks the "Good" part of your personality, but the hackers break the "Lawful" part.
I'm probably Chaotic good... So this seems legit to me.
Or they have some sort of financial interest in harming the site. It's like my grandpa used to say "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by fucking greed."
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
It's simple. Living with someone exposes their flaws. It's hard to see the flaws in people you don't live with. Less flaws = more attractive.
But the fact of the matter is, you should live up to your obligations. Sometimes you make bad choices in life... sometimes they are so bad that it affects the rest of your life... you end up missing an arm, or in prison, or married to a drunk. You've got to live with your choices, and do your best improve the situation. But lies, and dishonesty are not the way. Don't like your wife? Go to counseling, work it out with her... if all else fails, be honest with her and get a divorce, then start dating.
What exactly is the person that's visiting a site like this doing? It's pure, 100% evil. There is nothing good that comes of cheating. You're exposing your wife and children to all sorts of danger and instability. STDs, scorned women... God only knows. You're further harming your marriage with distrust and dishonesty. Infidelity is the ultimate selfish act, and it's at the expense of the people that are the closest to you. There are few other acts that even remotely compare in their depravity, and self interest.
It's not the cheating... it's the lying... and why you're lying. You're causing your spouse ultimate pain, for basically nothing. And you could avoid all of that with a few months of heart ache and once court appearance.
It is called NOT losing half your shit you own for getting caught playing in someone else's panties.
Worse, you still might lose your shit because your wife let someone else play in her panties, and then continue paying for them to fuck in your house. Seriously, marriage is a terrible deal. One of my older friends had to pay his wife half of his retirement from the Army because they were married for ten years. It's not like she was deployed or actually did anything.
I don't see any requests for money, so who is going to pay the hackers?
Individual customers certainly won't.
Dunno - one good spearphishing campaign based on the personal info gathered from the hack would probably garner quite a bit of money... and none of us would ever hear about it. The public announcements would only add to the credibility of the blackmail threats.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Anyone who thinks real-world ethics and morality can fit into D&D's neat little boxes of "alignment" clearly made INT their dump stat.
They just had 74 million prospective clients show up on their doorstep.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Actually, you're underestimating the impact. The information you have on AM would be perfect for blackmail. And I'm sure you can find some rather large and high-powered people to whom the release of information like that could be deadly - either professionally or politically.
You might think everyone having an affair is doing so with their spouse's full knowledge, but that's unlikely to be the case. I'm sure a tiny percent of those are in open marriages, and maybe a slightly larger proportion are doing so with the spouse's knowledge.
AM is not for people "dating" or "looking for a companion" - they're specifically for people already in a marriage to commit adultery. And this isn't the sort of "let's just get a prostitute" thing either.
So yes, the release of information is potentially devastating, and a good proportion of those marriages will end in divorce, while the others will probably end up with said spouse being a slave.
There may be no money request now, but I'm sure once the offer to shut down is refused, the hackers will be contacting everyone one of those 37M people and asking them for say, $10/month to keep quiet. Not too much to bother police about, see, but enough for a large and steady income.
And yes, the amount is important - ask for too much and the "punishment" for revealing you're an adulterer is probably not as bad. Make it a small amount and most people will just pay for the silence.
Heck, even the hint of a potential affair will drive some marriages on the rocks. Even if there was no one night fling - just having your spouse know you were looking puts you in the doghouse of distrust. (And no, this isn't gender specific - men AND women who were cheated on are equally vindictive to their partners).
I know when I first saw the ads on TV (regular mainstream TV, I know AM has been around a long time, but their profile has been quite low), I knew they would be a perfect hacking target.
and chocolate bars in the checkout lanes at grocery stores tempt people who otherwise managed to avoid the snack aisle. blaming temptation for your failings is a cowardly excuse. own your decisions.
do not read this line twice.