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Ashley Madison CEO Steps Down, Reporter Finds Clues To Hacker's Identity
Dave Knott writes: Following the recent hacks on the infidelity website Ashley Madison, Noel Biderman has stepped down as CEO of both AshleyMadison.com and its parent company. Avid Life Media Inc., the company that owns the site and many others, announced Biderman's move in a short press release on Friday: "Noel Biderman, in mutual agreement with the company, is stepping down as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc. (ALM) and is no longer with the company. Until the appointment of a new CEO, the company will be led by the existing senior management team." Before the data hack, the company was planning an IPO in London that would have taken in as much as $200 million from investors. According to regulatory filings, the company had $115 million in revenue last year, more than four times the amount it obtained in 2009.
Meanwhile, in related news, Brian Krebs (the reporter who first uncovered the hack) says he has uncovered clues to the possible identity of the hacker. Krebs says he noticed the Twitter account operated by a known hacker recently posted a link to Ashley Madison's stolen proprietary source code before it was made public. Intrigued by the poster's apparent access, he examined the account's posting history and noticed a predilection for the music of Australian hard rock band AC/DC. This jibes with the behavior of the hacker(s), who had displayed threatening messages on the computers of Ashley Madison employees, accompanied by AC/DC song Thunderstruck. In a series of tweets, the owner of the account, one Thadeus Zu, appears to deny that he was behind the hack, and indeed makes several suggestions that the account itself isn't even run by one person, but is instead an amalgam of like-minded digital vigilantes. The NY Times also reports that people whose details were contained in the leak are beginning to face threats of blackmail.
Meanwhile, in related news, Brian Krebs (the reporter who first uncovered the hack) says he has uncovered clues to the possible identity of the hacker. Krebs says he noticed the Twitter account operated by a known hacker recently posted a link to Ashley Madison's stolen proprietary source code before it was made public. Intrigued by the poster's apparent access, he examined the account's posting history and noticed a predilection for the music of Australian hard rock band AC/DC. This jibes with the behavior of the hacker(s), who had displayed threatening messages on the computers of Ashley Madison employees, accompanied by AC/DC song Thunderstruck. In a series of tweets, the owner of the account, one Thadeus Zu, appears to deny that he was behind the hack, and indeed makes several suggestions that the account itself isn't even run by one person, but is instead an amalgam of like-minded digital vigilantes. The NY Times also reports that people whose details were contained in the leak are beginning to face threats of blackmail.
There must only be a handful of people that could match such a specific description: listens to AC/DC, uses twitter, and denies any culpability. AC/DC has only sold around 200 million albums, so that alone dramatically restricts the possible culprits. The intersection between AC/DC aficionados and Twittter's 300M active users must be minuscule, maybe only one or two possible people.
He decided he 'wanted to spend more time with his mistress... err, wife.'
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
I'm less convinced in the transparency or honesty of pretty much any political candidate.
Apparently some people find Trump to be a little too transparent and honest.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Exactly. The mail server issue is not an issue, and those Republicans just spew lies. There was no classified information every sent to her. Not a single email message. Plus, if someone copied it from a secure system to an insecure one so they could mail it to her, then they're the ones committing the crime. It is logically impossible for her to have committed a crime. Of course since the Republicans are too stupid to understand logic, thus why they're Republicans, they think there is something illegal about her having classified material on a mail server in an apartment bathroom. They're so stupid.
Ladies night in you neck of the woods involves a bunch of men in dresses trying to fool someone?
You need to find some new bars to go to, unless that's what you're into of course.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'