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).