Ashley Madison Offers Huge Reward For Capture Of Hackers

Ashley Madison saw the personal info of some 37 million users leaked by hackers earlier this month, and now their parent company is offering a substantial reward for information leading to the capture...
Ashley Madison Offers Huge Reward For Capture Of Hackers
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Ashley Madison saw the personal info of some 37 million users leaked by hackers earlier this month, and now their parent company is offering a substantial reward for information leading to the capture of those responsible.

    Avid Life Media have put up $377,000 U.S. in the battle against the hackers, who threatened to leak a huge amount of personal information back in July if the company didn’t shut down Ashley Madison. The site offers services for those who want to seek exra-marital affairs, and so far the email addresses of public figures–such as Josh Duggar–have been revealed to the world, leading to speculation that everything from suicides to extortion plots are the result.

    “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,” said Toronto police service staff superintendent Bryce Evans.

    At least eight Ashley Madison clients are now suing the company, claiming negligence, breach of contract and privacy violations. While the site reportedly offered privacy insurance for an extra fee, it’s not clear whether those involved in the lawsuit paid for the service. That service was named in the hackers’ threats as one of the reasons they wanted the site shut down, as Ashley Madison allegedly never deleted user data as promised but kept their credit card info on file.

    “Needless to say, this dumping of sensitive personal and financial information is bound to have catastrophic effects on the lives of the website’s users. As a result of [Ashley Madison’s] unfair, unreasonable and inadequate data security, its users’ extremely personal and embarrassing information is now accessible to the public,” the lawsuit reads.

    Ashley Madison’s parent company released a statement about the security breach last week, saying, “We will not sit idly by and allow these thieves to force their personal ideology on citizens around the world.”

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