Ashley Madison, a cheating site geared towards married customers, was hacked over the weekend when records pertaining to its 37 million members were seized by a group that has threatened to publish the data if the company is not taken offline.
Blogger Brian Krebs, author of the “KrebsOnSecurity” blog, was the first person to report the security breach on Sunday when he revealed that the hackers had posted some of the compromised data online and were threatening to release all of
Ashley Madison’s customer records, according to CNN Money.
The company, whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair,” is owned by Avid Life Media (ALM), a firm that also owns the hookup sights Cougar Life and Established Men. ALM chief executive Noel Biderman has confirmed that hack, saying that the company is “working diligently and feverishly” to take down its intellectual property.
“We’re not denying this happened. Like us or not, this is still a criminal act,” Biderman said, according to Krebs.
ALM further stated that while it has been able to secure the websites and close unauthorized access points, it is working alongside law enforcement agencies to investigate the hacking, according to CNN Money.
The hackers, who go by the name “The Impact Team,” stole “maps of internal company servers, employee network account information, company bank account data, and
salary information,” according to Fusion.net. The hackers appeared to be incensed over ALM’s “Full Delete” policy, which states that the company will remove all traces of a customer’s account for $19. The Impact Team has accused ALM of retaining credit card information, names, and addresses.
“We apologize for this unprovoked and criminal intrusion into our customers’ information," an ALM spokesperson said in a statement to Fusion.net. "The current business world has proven to be one in which no company’s online assets are safe from cyber-vandalism.”
The hackers, however, are still demanding that ALM permanently shut down Ashley Madison and Established Men, threatening to publish all of the data unless all of their demands are met, including “all customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails,” according to Krebs.
“Shutting down AM and EM will cost you, but non-compliance will cost you more,” the hackers allegedly said, according to Krebs.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.