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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.
I'm not sure what the point of any of this is. Between the hacks and the revelations that the site is little more than a few hookers, some staff trying to titillate members, and a whole fucking lot of men, I'd say AM is pretty much dead at this point.
When I'm tinfoil hat mode, I wonder if this hack was really about some competitor committing an act of commercial homicide. It sure would be one way to wipe out a dominant player in the "find you a fuck buddy" industry.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I've often wondered what happens to people like this after the fact.
For example, recall Aaron Barr, the guy running HB Gary and who claimed he could "out" the Anonymous members by dubious correlation of social media accounts.
Or that guy Paul Christoforo who threw down with Penny Arcade founder Mike Krahulik (and got fired, banned from PAX, and his marketing company's client dropped them).
Do these people find jobs somewhere on this planet? Does Kevin Mitnick's security firm have a lot of customers?
The Ashley Madison guy - that's 'gotta be an awkward interview, you know.
"Why did you leave your previous place of employment?"
This whole thing screams "inside job".
A lot of the information that has been released, most notably employee emails and internal company documents, couldn't possibly have also been on the servers that held the databases for the AM site. So either (1) the hackers thoroughly penetrated the company and got *everything*, or (2) the people running AM were stupider than I believe possible (actually you would have to *work* to put all of your eggs in one basket that way), or (3) someone swiped backup tapes when they were on their way out the door.
The last theory is the simplest.
Most places I worked at did offsite backups. The backups were left at the front desk for the courier to pick up each day. If some backups went missing there probably wouldn't be a freakout -- they'd just figure someone had thrown them in the trash or picked them up by mistake. Even if they did freak out they would do so very privately.
Didn't a variant of stuxnet play Thunderstruck when it pwned the Iranian nuclear facilities? So, one does not have to be an AC/DC fan to think up taunting AM with Thunderstruck during the hack. Just giving a nod to stuff better hackers than you did before.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.