Hackers reveal user information of adult affair website Ashley Madison

Hackers have leaked the personal information of 36 million users of the Ashley Madison website, which matches adults seeking to have an affair.

The data dump comes almost exactly 30 days after a hacking group called the Impact Team claimed responsibility for a data breach of the social media site, demanding that Ashley Madison and its sister site Established Men be shut down. On Tuesday, the hackers claimed to have posted online the names, email addresses, partial credit card information and dating preferences of the users. The accompanying message from the Impact Team accused the parent company of both sites, Toronto-based Avid Life Media, of deceit and incompetence.

According to WIRED, 9.7 gigabytes of data was posted to the dark web, including payment information dating back to 2007. Analysts and “Internetites” have begun combing the data for public figures, with one report claiming that some 15,000 accounts were linked to .mil or .gov email addresses.

“ Anonymous internet posters have already discovered the email address of at least one public figure. In subsequent posts, they identify this person’s partner. This person has been confronted on Twitter…,” John Herrman wrote for The Awl.

Raja Bhatia, Ashley Madison’s former chief technology officer, initially doubted the authenticity of the data dump, according to an interview with security analyst Brian Krebs, who broke the story on the original hack in late July. However, Krebs as well as the Guardian have confirmed the data is genuine.

Ashley Madison said it was aware of the claim and was looking into the leak.