‘Suicides’ Over Ashley Madison Hack

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The Ashley Madison dating website has had one of the largest data breaches in the world.  It has exposed over 33 million account details of people’s personal information.  It has now been reported that there has been two suicides as a result of the hack.

AshleyMadison

BBC Reports:

Two Ashley Madison clients are reported to have taken their lives after hackers published their details according to police in Canada.

The force held a news conference about their investigation into the website hack at Toronto Police Headquarters.

No further information has yet been released about the deaths.

Ashley Madison’s Canadian parent company Avid Life Media is offering a C$500,000 (£240,000) reward for information about the hackers.

Over 33 million account details were stolen.

Ashley Madison is a dating website which offers users the opportunity to have an affair.

Addressing the hackers, known as The Impact Team, Mr Evans said, “Team Impact [sic], I want to make it very clear to you your actions are illegal and we will not be tolerating them. This is your wake up call.”

Cash reward

“Today I can confirm that Avid Life Media is offering a $500,000 (£240,000) reward to anyone providing information that leads to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person or persons responsible for the leak of the Ashley Madison database,” he added.

Mr Evans confirmed that credit card data was included in the original data dump released by the The Impact Team.

He said that investigators believed this was limited to the last four digits of the main card number.

Consequently, police are advising victims of the hack to review their accounts.

He also explained that the hack had already led to a series of “spin-offs of crimes and further victimisation”.

“Criminals have already engaged in online scams by claiming to provide access to the leaked websites,” he said.

“The public needs to be aware that by clicking on these links you are exposing your computers to malware, spyware, adware and viruses.”

‘Thunderstruck’

The unfolding of the hack was also detailed at the conference – from the moment on 12 July when several Avid Life Media employees logged in to their computers and were confronted by a message from the hackers.

This message was accompanied by music – AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, said Mr Evans.

“This hack is one of the largest data breaches in the world and is very unique on its own in that it exposed tens of millions of people’s personal information,” he added.

Police have set up @a Twitter account, @AMCaseTPS, and hashtag, #AMCaseTPS, in a bid to gather information about the hack from members of the public.

Photo:  Bing

 

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