In 2015, the portal for "anonymous" infidelities made one of the most high-profile leaks of the century…
In the early 2000s, the dating site Ashley Madison, which helped married people start extramarital affairs, was experiencing a peak in popularity. More than 37 million people have registered on the portal in the hope of starting a relationship on the side. The company's slogan was "Life is short, have an affair".
However, in 2015, the activity of the resource abruptly stopped after an unprecedented cyber attack. A group of hackers calling themselves The Impact Team "punished" Ashley Madison by releasing the data of all registered customers.
Launched in 2001, Ashley Madison was positioned as an anonymous space for those who want to cheat on their significant other. The resource promised customers complete confidentiality when searching for partners.
The Impact Team explained its action in 2015 with moral principles-the desire to speak out against the dubious activities and unethical business practices of Ashley Madison. Hackers demanded that the site owners close the project and threatened that otherwise they would have to face "serious consequences". Unfortunately, the threats were not taken seriously.
While law enforcement agencies and the company's management frantically tried to track down the members of The Impact Team, the names of millions of traitors from different walks of life — from ordinary citizens to celebrities-were publicly available.
Among those exposed was, for example, Josh Duggar from the family reality show "19 children and this is not the limit" on TLC. Later, Duggar was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography, which finally undermined the reputation of his show.
The leak had truly tragic consequences. Because of the scandal, many families broke up, and some exposed traitors, unable to stand the shame, committed suicide. So, the prosecutor from Florida lost his position after information about his infidelity surfaced. And one pastor in New Orleans committed suicide because of a public denunciation of his extramarital affair.
Recently, streaming giant Netflix announced a documentary series about people whose lives were destroyed in the attack on Ashley Madison. The trailer for the three-part film "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal" has long appeared online, and the project itself started yesterday, May 15.
The identity of The Impact Team members who carried out the attack is still one of the greatest mysteries in the history of cybersecurity. Despite the best efforts of the investigators, they were never identified.
One of the main complaints of hackers to Ashley Madison was a paid service to completely delete customer data from the site. For $ 20, the service promised to permanently erase all information about the traitor, but, according to cyber intruders, this was just a publicity stunt — in fact, the information was carefully stored in databases.
"The service, which is proudly called "Full Removal", brought the company $ 1.7 million in revenue in 2014. But this is a blatant lie and fraud, " The Impact Team wrote. "Users usually pay with bank cards, but contrary to promises, no payment data with real names and addresses is then destroyed."
After the hack, Ashley Madison announced its cooperation with the FBI in investigating the incident. "We know that there are people who can identify one or more hackers. We encourage them to get in touch. Criminals will be severely punished, " the company said in a statement.
Then the ex-head of the company, Noel Biederman, put forward his own version regarding the possible organizer of the attack. In his opinion, a former employee-a certain William Brewster Harrison-could be behind the hack.
The fact is that after his dismissal in 2011, Harrison allegedly harbored a grudge against the employer and began a real harassment. He leaked incriminating materials about Ashley Madison to the media, and also sent angry letters with death threats to the service's management. There were suggestions that in this way Harrison simply prepared the ground for a cyberattack-a kind of revenge on former colleagues.
However, this version soon lost all meaning. It turned out that William Brewster Harrison committed suicide in 2014, long before the incident with The Impact Team. Thus, this hot lead also turned out to be a dead end.
In the early 2000s, the dating site Ashley Madison, which helped married people start extramarital affairs, was experiencing a peak in popularity. More than 37 million people have registered on the portal in the hope of starting a relationship on the side. The company's slogan was "Life is short, have an affair".
However, in 2015, the activity of the resource abruptly stopped after an unprecedented cyber attack. A group of hackers calling themselves The Impact Team "punished" Ashley Madison by releasing the data of all registered customers.
Launched in 2001, Ashley Madison was positioned as an anonymous space for those who want to cheat on their significant other. The resource promised customers complete confidentiality when searching for partners.
The Impact Team explained its action in 2015 with moral principles-the desire to speak out against the dubious activities and unethical business practices of Ashley Madison. Hackers demanded that the site owners close the project and threatened that otherwise they would have to face "serious consequences". Unfortunately, the threats were not taken seriously.
While law enforcement agencies and the company's management frantically tried to track down the members of The Impact Team, the names of millions of traitors from different walks of life — from ordinary citizens to celebrities-were publicly available.
Among those exposed was, for example, Josh Duggar from the family reality show "19 children and this is not the limit" on TLC. Later, Duggar was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography, which finally undermined the reputation of his show.
The leak had truly tragic consequences. Because of the scandal, many families broke up, and some exposed traitors, unable to stand the shame, committed suicide. So, the prosecutor from Florida lost his position after information about his infidelity surfaced. And one pastor in New Orleans committed suicide because of a public denunciation of his extramarital affair.
Recently, streaming giant Netflix announced a documentary series about people whose lives were destroyed in the attack on Ashley Madison. The trailer for the three-part film "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and Scandal" has long appeared online, and the project itself started yesterday, May 15.
The identity of The Impact Team members who carried out the attack is still one of the greatest mysteries in the history of cybersecurity. Despite the best efforts of the investigators, they were never identified.
One of the main complaints of hackers to Ashley Madison was a paid service to completely delete customer data from the site. For $ 20, the service promised to permanently erase all information about the traitor, but, according to cyber intruders, this was just a publicity stunt — in fact, the information was carefully stored in databases.
"The service, which is proudly called "Full Removal", brought the company $ 1.7 million in revenue in 2014. But this is a blatant lie and fraud, " The Impact Team wrote. "Users usually pay with bank cards, but contrary to promises, no payment data with real names and addresses is then destroyed."
After the hack, Ashley Madison announced its cooperation with the FBI in investigating the incident. "We know that there are people who can identify one or more hackers. We encourage them to get in touch. Criminals will be severely punished, " the company said in a statement.
Then the ex-head of the company, Noel Biederman, put forward his own version regarding the possible organizer of the attack. In his opinion, a former employee-a certain William Brewster Harrison-could be behind the hack.
The fact is that after his dismissal in 2011, Harrison allegedly harbored a grudge against the employer and began a real harassment. He leaked incriminating materials about Ashley Madison to the media, and also sent angry letters with death threats to the service's management. There were suggestions that in this way Harrison simply prepared the ground for a cyberattack-a kind of revenge on former colleagues.
However, this version soon lost all meaning. It turned out that William Brewster Harrison committed suicide in 2014, long before the incident with The Impact Team. Thus, this hot lead also turned out to be a dead end.
