The Ashley Madison Hack: An Affair to Remember FOREVER

Come on, admit it. Don’t you feel just a little satisfaction watching 37 million adulterers exposed in the Ashley Madison hack? “They do kind of deserve to be cheated just a bit for being cheaters,” someone in one of my keynote speeches commented.

In this case, the hackers weren’t seeking money, they were seeking revenge. Their goal was to get Ashley Madison to shut down the site because they said it wasn’t living up to it’s own privacy policy (they weren’t). But to side with the hackers is a bit like saying it’s okay to pepper spray customers to keep them from going into a store you’re morally opposed to. In other words, be careful when you condone the use of customers as pawns to fuel change. You just might be the next customer to become a victim, and your data could be just as sensitive (your medical records, divorce proceedings, kids’ geographical location or your online video viewing habits).

I, like many others, have a hard time feeling sorry for the consequences of the stupid and poor choices some have made. It’s not like the victims of the Ashley Madison hack are in the same category as the innocent mom who shopped for holiday presents at Target, or the senior citizen who had their Social Security number breached due to Anthem’s careless cyber security.

However, as someone committed to protecting moms and senior citizens and everyone else from experiencing the blowback from thieves, exploiters and liars, I just can’t stay away from this one. Because even non-users are ultimately effected by the Ashley Madison hack.

How the Ashley Madison Hack Affects Non-Users Like You

This hack has continued with the precedent set by the Sony hackers because they not only stole the information, but they are blackmailing the company by threatening to make the data public unless the company accedes to their demands (stopping the release of “The Interview” or shutting Ashley Madison down). And the blackmail often works, meaning that this trend will continue!
Besides the effect of having divorce lawyers calling their Maserati dealer to order a new car, this has allegedly led to suicides and to the resignation of Noel Biderman, the chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc., the company behind Ashley Madison. After major breaches (Sony, Target, OPM, Ashley Madison), the highest executive becomes the sacrificial lamb.
In addition to the database of users’ names, addresses and the type of extramarital arrangement they were looking for, hackers have also gotten information on 9,693,860 credit and debit card transactions conducted on the site since 2008, opening the doors wide for identity theft. I can almost guarantee that this will affect someone in your life.
Cyber extortion has erupted because Ashley Madison has gone on the offensive and offered a bounty for the “capture” of the enemy. The site is offering a reward of $500,000 for information that leads to the successful arrest and prosecution of the people who stole and leaked its data. This sets an alarming precedent of the weaponization of consumer information and the resulting retaliation.
Perhaps the scariest consequence of all is that after the hackers followed through on their threat to make the information public (after AM officials called the hack bogus), enterprising coders created online tools that allowed anyone to easily search the breached Ashley Madison data to see if their friends, family, partners and spouses used the website. That almost guarantees that the breach data will be used to commit fraud (many times breached data is recovered before it is exposed on the open market).

If you are thinking, “serves them all right”, just realize that next time it might be your employer’s or bank’s website. It could be your doctor, your hospital or political organization. It could be the data from your child’s school. And it could be an affair you will never forget.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on cyber security, identity theft, internet privacy, and fraud. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Posted by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy and tagged “Ashley Madison hack”, “Ashley Madison”, Ashley Madison Breach, Cyber Security Expert, Data Breach, John Sileo, Sileo.