Hackers Publish Cheating Site's Stolen Data

pdclarry notes that many news outlets are reporting that 9.7 GB of data stolen from cheating website AshleyMadison.com has been published online. "The dump contains files with titles including 'aminno_member_dump.gz,' 'aminno_member_email.dump.gz,' 'CreditCardTransactions7z,' and 'member_details.dump.gz,' an indication that the download could contain highly personal details." Brian Krebs questioned the way this has been reported without confirmation, but added that he's been contacted by several people who found their own accurate details within the data dump. Many of the reports note this detail: "Assuming the download turns out to be authentic, people should remember that it was possible for anyone to create an account using the name and e-mail address of other individuals."

Comments

... using the name and e-mail address of other ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Usually all sites will send a confirmation email and only enable the account if a confirmation link or code from that email is used.

So i guess it's a bit hard to "create an account using the ... e-mail address of other individuals"

Yeah, right.

[Zontar The Mindless]

Assuming the download turns out to be authentic, people should remember that it was possible for anyone to create an account using the name and e-mail address of other individuals.

...And supplying other people's credit card details as well, no doubt.

FWIW, I believe that people's sex lives are their own business, married or not. But I find it difficult to drum up any sympathy for marrieds who are foolish enough to go looking for something on the side via a big flashy commercial website dedicated to that purpose.

Internet privacy was over at least a decade ago. There's been plenty of time for you to figure this out.

Re:Yeah, right.

[ThatsMyNick]

Your take on that comment was that he was turning a blind eye? To me it seemed like a lament, that privacy is dead. Long live privacy.

Re:Yeah, right.

[Zontar The Mindless]

I've always assumed that GMail isn't really private, either.

For most of the last 25 years, I've followed a little rule I learned in my radio days: "Don't say it on the air if you don't want to read about it in the paper." It's yet to be proven wrong.

Re:Yeah, right.

[cbhacking]

Oh, please. Cheating is bad, but "one of the cruelest and most inhumane things one person can do to another" is at risk of breaking my hyperboleometer. Discounting things like giving your partner a disease, which is a risk that increases when cheating but is its own separate problem, the heartbreak from cheating is nothing compared to the enduring pain from the death of a loved one, or the trauma of violent rape, or the horror of the battlefield, or even the crippling injuries one can get from a car crash. Cheating is cruelty and betrayal, but at the end of the day it's not likely to ruin your whole life, much less end it.

Besides, humans aren't really wired very well for monogamy. I mean, some people find that their completely natural state, sure, but most of the way we view the topic is due to societal expectation. Throughout history, the powerful have had mistresses or consorts or even kept harems, there have been entire societies that practiced polygamy at all levels, and various forms of consensual non-monogamy have been practiced more-or-less in secret for centuries even in "modern" culture. If you think you can truly be your partner's everything, the only one they'll ever need to provide everything they desire, then (statistically speaking) you're delusional. I'm not saying that justifies lying and cheating any more than the DMCA and eternal copyrights justify pirating music, but it does mean you shouldn't be surprised when it happens, and that you're better off changing the rules and saving everybody - yourself included - the anguish.

Cheating may feel inhumane, but it is very, very human.

Re:Yeah, right.

[AmiMoJo]

I see marriage as a partnership between two people. Each gets a lot out of the marriage - stability, a family, a home, security, companionship etc. So refraining from cheating on your partner is just one of the sacrifices you have to make in exchange for that. Sure, you can agree not to be exclusive with each other and maintain the marriage, but going behind your partner's back when you know it will hurt them is not right.

Re:Yeah, right.

[Anonymous Coward]

the heartbreak from cheating is nothing compared to the enduring pain from the death of a loved one

This is one of those generalisations that betrays a close to zero understanding of human emotion. Cheating and unexpected death are both often experienced in similar ways as losses: you had a strong bond with someone that was very important to you, and now suddenly you don't. The loved one has gone, and it's not relevant whether they've gone to the guy/gal the next town over, or six feet under.

the powerful have had mistresses or consorts or even kept harems

They've also waged brutal offensive wars and raped and pillaged. "The powerful" tends to be a fairly vicious standard to look up to - fortunately, most people don't.

there have been entire societies that practiced polygamy at all levels

Polygamy is not about cheating. There is nothing dishonest in everyone agreeing to a particular arrangement, whatever it is. In confounding two separate arguments, you're making polygamy look bad, even when you seem to want to make it look good.

If you think you can truly be your partner's everything, the only one they'll ever need to provide everything they desire, then (statistically speaking) you're delusional.

This is a ridiculous strawman, and you know it.

Cheating may feel inhumane, but it is very, very human.

This statement is vacuous. What does "human" mean here - that it's something humans can and sometimes do do? Then murder is "very, very human". It's certainly not inevitable for even a small minority to cheat. You don't want to be faithful to Bob? Go tell Bob!

Re:Yeah, right.

[DarkOx]

Which is why this "marry who you love" narrative is so dangerous. Should you marry without love, probably not after all its going to be hard to do the right things in more trying times if you are not committed to the cause of being with your spouse. That said love is not enough.

Marriage should deliver on those things you mention, - stability, a family, a home, security, companionship etc. It should be advantageous for both parties. To that end the partnership is a contract. Many of the benefits flow direct from the belief the other person will honor their commitments.

If society allows marriages to be entered into or exited from lightly the benefits get watered down. So to say "going behind your partner's back when you know it will hurt them is not right" is a understatement. Not only are dealing great harm to that person by depriving them of something they have potentially made an enormous investment in when you have been married along time, its even bigger than the two of you (or three of you as the case may be). It harming society as whole.

Honestly no-fault divorce should have never been a thing, and society should look down on adultery. Its really better for all of us. We need more shame and more shaming not less. If you don't want to commit don't get married its that simple.

Re:Yeah, right.

[readin]

Oh, please. Cheating is bad, but "one of the cruelest and most inhumane things one person can do to another" is at risk of breaking my hyperboleometer.

Let's see you build your life around a commitment and the other person breaks it. From the biological standpoint of a man you forgo all other chances to reproduce on the belief that you're partner will have your child and then you spend a huge portion of your life caring for that child and earning money to support that child. Then you find out it's not your child. You've been tricked into spending your whole existence serving the interests of another man. If you believe the theory of evolution you understand that you have been murdered for eternity.

There are reasons men get jealous and why in most successful societies female infidelity incurs severe punishments, and why rape should also incur severe penalties.

As a wise man once said

[Distan]

"Information wants to be free".

The idea that AshleyMadison (or any other entity) would keep registration information private forever was laughable. My rule of thumb is that if I don't want what I do to be published all over the internet, then don't do it.

Re:As a wise man once said

[alvinrod]

Information doesn't want anything. It's inanimate.

I'm guessing you don't seek any medical attention or do any kind of banking as that kind of information is also stored in computers now. Either you have no problem with your medical or financial records being open for all to see, or outside of the occasional /. post, you encase your devices in tinfoil and retreat to a mountain cave. Or the third, more likely option, you' just haven't thought what you're saying all the way through.

Re:As a wise man once said

[TsuruchiBrian]

"Information wants to be free" isn't meant to be taken literally. It's a metaphor for the fact that it is very hard to restrict access to information once a large enough number of people have already have access to it. It only takes one person to leak it, and the odds that no one will leak it goes to nearly 0 pretty quickly.

So yeah, don't create or share any information with anyone unnecessarily if you don't want it leaked. The morality of violating someone's privacy is irrelevant, to the reality of the difficulty of restricting access to information.

And yes, if I actually cared about keeping my medical information secret more than I cared about getting medical treatment, then I wouldn't get the medical treatment. Luckily, no one gives a shit about my medical records. Medical record are like genitals, everyone's got them. The same goes with financial records.

Re: ... using the name and e-mail address of other

[x0ra]

It's not a prank, it's identity theft, either a felony or a misdemeanor.

Re:More social decay.

[vux984]

Why does lifelong monogamy has to be the moral norm ?

Who said it does? Nobody says it has to be your norm. You don't have to get married, lots of people don't. You certainly don't have to stay married, again lost of people don't.

There is nothing particularly immoral about having multiple partners over your life. The immorality is the deception and betrayal of trust. If your going to bang strangers from the internet fine... tell your partner(s) that's what your going to be doing. If they're cool with that great. If they're not, you can leave each other and find a partner(s) that will accept it.

But sneaking around behind their back(s), lying to them, and violating their trust? What's your "moral" argument for doing that?

Re:More social decay.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention the possibility of passing STDs to your current partner.

Re:Sanctimonius pricks

[garyok]

Parent fails English interpretation. The first sentence groups Ashley Madison members with other freethinkers as the subjects of illegal action. Freethinkers aren't the perpetrators, they're another class of victim roped in by the AM crowd to make out that hacking a cheaters website was just gosh-darned un-American.

Of course, the hackers aren't doing this out a sense of morality. Quite the opposite in fact - they just want to stir shit up and cause havoc.

Re:More social decay.

[The Rizz]

However, lies to strangers and casual acquaintances are a different thing than lies to someone who is supposed to be able to have implicit trust in you. I'm not talking about small lies like "I'm on my way right now" when you'd totally forgotten something, but the big important ones like "I'm swear not fucking the babysitter." It's a sheer betrayal on a personal level - it causes emotional pain and suffering, and is of the type that such relationships almost never recover from.

Re:More social decay.

[Gavagai80]

The average American of course commits 0 felonies a day, but by repeating that lie you're at least providing evidence for the lying part.

Re:More social decay.

[Sardaukar86]

Sadly, this kind of argument is beyond the capacity of most slashdotters.

Oh piss off. The average intelligence of the /. readers and posting community is not in doubt, especially in comparison to more mainstream discussion forums. Contrary to popular opinion, many nerds are the man or woman of their own family, usually one made with a completely normal game of hide-the-sausage.

In my experience - and despite the 'Aspie' stereotype - nerds are keenly aware of other people's feelings and I often find they hold their own behaviour to a higher standard than most.

Re:... using the name and e-mail address of other

[McGruber]

Arstechnica reports:

For what it's worth, more than 15,000 of the e-mail addresses are hosted by US government and military servers using the .gov and .mil top-level domains.

I wonder how many federal employees will be losing security clearances as a result of this?